Sarkozy Faces His Biggest Protest Yet

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Sarkozy Faces His Biggest Protest Yet on French Economic Plan
By Helene Fouquet

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Nicolas Sarkozy faced the biggest public protest since his election in 2007 as more than a million people marched across France complaining about his government’s economic policies.

The police said 1.1 million people demonstrated, while Confederation Generale du Travail, the second-biggest French labor union, put the total at 2.5 million. This is the biggest protest since the 2006 marches against a disputed youth-work law that forced the government to scrap it.

The nation’s eight largest unions joined forces in the strike, saying Sarkozy’s 26 billion-euro ($34.4 billion) economic-stimulus package is inadequate. They want the government do more to counter rising unemployment and weakening purchasing power as the French economy enters its first recession in 16 years.

“The target is won, thanks to the massive presence of private sector workers,” Francois Chereque, head of Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail, France’s biggest union, said at the end of the Paris demonstration, adding that today “is the biggest workers’ action day in about 20 years,” according to his press office.

The strike resulted in train delays, closed schools and jammed roads as more than a million public sector workers and thousands of others from companies including France Telecom SA and Renault SA took part in the work stoppage.

Bank of France

Participation in the strike today ranged from 25 percent at the Bank of France to more than 60 percent in primary schools. The Public Service Ministry reported that 26 percent of its staff walked out, or about 900,000 people. That’s more than the 20 percent strikers in November 2007.

“This crisis imposes on the government a duty to listen, to engage in dialogue,” Sarkozy said in an e-mailed statement in response to the day’s events. “The concern is legitimate” as citizens “are losing their jobs” he said, adding that he plans to meet with labor unions and employers next month to discuss reforms planned for 2009.

The Paris march ended with violence at the Garnier opera square. Riot police fired tear gas as protesters burned trash bins. CGT said 300,000 walked in the capital city and authorities reported 65,000 demonstrators.

While France has a history of street protests, the global financial crisis has sparked similar demonstrations and unrest in countries from China and Greece to Iceland. France’s most disruptive transport strike in over a decade in November 2007 cost as much as 400 million euros a day, according to finance ministry estimates.

Popular Support

About 69 percent of the French people backed the strike, according to a poll by CSA-Opinion for newspaper Le Parisien on Jan. 25. Forty-six percent support the strike, while 23 percent “sympathize,” with the union call, Le Parisien said. Of those interviewed, 12 percent were opposed or hostile to the strike.

It’s the first time in Sarkozy’s presidency that a “social movement” has had such public approval, Stephane Rozes, head of CSA-Opinion told the daily.

Ten percent of the flights at Paris’s Charles-de-Gaulle airport were canceled and third of those at the city’s second airport Orly were scrapped. In Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, most public transport was canceled. The aviation authority said flight operation will return to normal tomorrow.

Output at French power plants operated by Electricite de France, Europe’s biggest electricity producer, fell by 14,000 megawatts because of strikes, a “record amount,” according to the CGT union.

To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Paris at Hfouquet1@bloomberg.net.