(Image Source: World Weblog Whizz)
BY HANNAH MYRICK
After two months of public outrage, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s controversial pension bill has become law in France. Many wonder why a two-year difference in retirement age continues to bring French high school students, middle-aged workers and everyone in between to the streets in protest.
One RT anchor notes even when France raises its retirement age to 62 it will still have one of the youngest retirement ages in Europe.
“A lot of people around the world looking on at France would say that French workers have quite an easy time of it they’re amongst one of the youngest retirement ages. In Britain in fact people are facing working until 65, but that could rise shortly to 66 in a few years time if plans go through. Don’t you think the French protesters are kind of exaggerating the pain they’re going to face?”
While the age of retirement is creeping higher all over Europe, nowhere have protesters been more determined than in France. BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt says this is because in France, people feel like they are defending more than just their right to retire.
“In their view it is a fight not just about a piece of legislation, but about the French way of life.”
According to a report by France 24, it hasn’t been the French way of life for very long.
“France has been very wedded to the pension age of 60 but also missing from the debate is the realization that actually the pension age in France was 65 until the early 1980s when it was reduced to age 60.”
Though the bill has been passed, the media warns that protesters do not plan on relenting. The Guardian quotes a member of the French Communist Party, Pierre Lauren, voicing his dissent.
"This ultimate provocation will not stop the will of the people and cannot but increase the protests.”
So what do you think? Are pension reforms an assault on a way of life, or are French protesters just overreacting?
Get more multi-source world news from Newsy.com
