As I’m sure many of you have see, even on the Australian news, France has been plagued by what seems to be a never-ending grève (strike). Initially I didn’t pay much notice to this particular one as striking is somewhat of a national past-time here, however after a good week of unpredictable buses, burnt buildings and trains arriving every 6 minutes not 3 :O, I decided to investigate. Usually I skip reading the politics parts in the free little newspaper I pick up most mornings on the métro as all the political parties have acronymns for all the different political parties which makes reading like cracking the Da Vinci Code. Much to my surprise however it turns out that this almost month long strike is regarding retraite (retirement). As the image aboves reads- On strike until retirement! The Froggies are a bit upset that Sarko has raised their retirement age from 60 (already one of the lowest in Europe) to…..62! I couldn’t believe it!
All this drama, petrol stations running out of petrol, kids not as school as teachers are on the street, cars on fire, streets blocked because they can’t wait two measly years as the government doesn’t think that they will be feasibly able to afford it. I thought perhaps I had misread the article so asked around, most Parisians I asked just did the typical ‘parisian shrug.’ I think however it is also the timing of this decision as a lot of our political controversies have occurred recently like France’s condemned decision to expell the Roms, a tribe of Romanian gypsies who have set up little camps on the edge of most major cities, as well Sarko’s recent fall in popularity. However, now things are just getting ridiculous, high school students still continue to strike although they haven’t even worked a single day in their life! With the school holidays now on however these strikes have interrrupted or delayed many a vacation as people are concerned about getting stuck in Toulouse as their TGV train is not running.
Oh les français!
