WHEN the French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe, announced his now infamous austerity plan a year ago, he received a standing ovation in the French parliament. But French trade unions marked the first anniversary yesterday with rail, air, transport and banking strikes.
Sixty per cent of Air Inter Europe flights were cancelled because of a pilots' strike in protest at the merger of Air Inter and Air France. No French newspapers were distributed in Paris when printers stopped work following a journalists' strike the previous day. And 2,000 bank employees marched through Paris to decry the expected loss of 60,000 banking jobs over the next five years.
The main trade unions have called for demonstrations today and the Communist CGT predicts further industrial action in late November. Pilots' unions have already scheduled another 48 hour strike for November 27th-28th.
Under pressure, Mr Juppe has already scrapped much of his programme. But widespread public discontent continues. His plan sought to reform three major aspects of the French welfare state retirement, the French state railway company SNCF and medical insurance.
When public sector workers, who have enjoyed better retirement benefits than their private sector counterparts, were told last year that this would end, the country erupted in three weeks of strikes. As a result, Mr Juppe abandoned hope of altering government pensions. Over the past year, two plans for decentralising the inefficient SNCF have also fallen by the wayside.
