Another Day, Another Protest in France

Street protests are obviously not an unusual occurrence in France. The country is known for its love of demonstrations, and anybody who's lived in Paris for even a bit knows how frequently a strike or a march can throw you off your daily commute. But recent demonstrations in France have been something different entirely, and they're making the government increasingly nervous.

First there was January's one-day strike protesting the economic crisis, and now today another nation-wide strike has gone ahead, with unions claiming that three million people have taken part. 200 towns across the country have seen demonstrations, in which all eight of the country's big unions are demanding more protections for workers in the recession. And as unemployment has risen to two million, they are demanding more is spent in any rescue package on more unemployment benefits.

Benoit Hamon, a leftist rising star in the Socialist party, has been at the forefront of the protests, saying French President Sarkozy has been aggravating the crisis my making the "wrong economic and social choices."

The huge numbers these two strikes have attracted are causing the French government increasing worry. Sarkozy's popularity is perilously low, and the number of French people supporting the strikers is increasing. 74 percent of the French said today they support this week's protests. according to BVA. That's up from 69 percent in January. There is increasing talk of violent revolts this spring. And as evidenced by Hamon's increasingly prominent role, the hard left is gaining power and influence. Olivier Besancenot, a postman and the leader of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, has also been gaining popularity. A recent poll put him as the candidate who could pose the most viable threat to President Sarkozy.

And this is all happening in France, which analysts will be the least affected by the crisis among major European countries. All of this is making leaders across Europe increasingly concerned about a "spring of discontent."

May you live in interesting times

I've spent the past few days getting settled here in Brussels, and so far things have gone quite well. I've got a great apartment right in Centre Ville next to the Grand Place, and my intensive French class is fantastic. It's an advanced class and there's only seven of us, each from a different country.

Last night I had drinks with a French friend who lives here in Brussels, and we were talking about different things going on the EU these days. There wasn't a shortage of things to discuss. Toward the end of the conversation, we remarked on what a crazy time this is to be living in Brussels reporting on the EU. It feels like we're on the precipice of something, particularly in Europe. Things are about to change, we speculated, and they could possibly go in extreme directions. It looks like we've all been victims of that old purported Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times." But to continue with the 'mangled cliches claiming to be proverbs theme', the Chinese character for crisis also means opportunity! Could the economic crisis lead to a strengthening of pan-European institutions, or could it just as easily lead to the disintegration of the entire EU project?

'Black Thursday'

The one-day strike in France has come to an end, and despite some predictions, it didn't shut down the country. Yet for anyone who wanted to dismiss this simply as the French being French, there were signs today that this wasn't your average French protest.

The nation-wide industrial action severely disrupted air, rail and commuter service across the country. Air France stopped its flights, and hospitals had to operate at reduced capacity. Even journalists didn't show up for work today.

Industrial action is hardly unusual in France, but one thing was significantly different about today's strike: the protest wasn't against a specific issue, but rather at the government's handling of the entire global economic crisis. The French public is furious at the perceived unfairness of government bailouts going to the bankers and investors who caused the crisis in the first place. The protests turned violent this evening, with riots and fires erupting throughout the city and clashes with riot police.

Sarkozy recently said that a country like France will be hard to govern during this global economic crisis. He seemed today to be quite rattled by the strike. And with the dismal views coming out of Davos this week, things clearly are only going to get worse. As these protests keep occurring with increasing frequency in Europe, it's looking more and more likely that 2009 will be a year of discontent on the streets of Europe's capitals.

'Permalancers' walk out in US

There was an interesting article in the New York Times today about the "permalancing" concept so popular in the US which I wrote about in my blog entry last week about the new EU protections for temp workers. "Permalancers" are people who work regular full-time hours, but are classified as "freelancers" by their company so they don't have to give them benefits.

Yesterday a large number of freelancers at MTV networks walked off the job to protest the company's cuts to healthcare benefits for the 'permalancers.' The permalancers already have an extreemly low level of healthcare coverage and the new cuts whittle them down to almost nothing.

I have a number of friends who work for MTV as 'freelancers,' one friend has worked there full time under thsi status for 4 years. But they're all tucked away with visions of sugar plums dancing in their head right now so I can't ask if they took part in the walkout. But what's really interesting about this is that it seems to be the first instance of people working udner this status undertaking collective action.

Incidentally, no MTV office in Europe has anything even resembling the "permalancers" system, I'm told.

Le divorce

Think you’re having a bad day? France’s new president Nicolas Sarkozy is having probably the worst week of his life, dealing concurrently with a massive public transit strike and a divorce. It looks like the end of his marriage has come at the same time as the end of his honeymoon period as president.

The presidential palace announced yesterday that Cécilia Sarkozy and Nicolas have divorced “by mutual consent” At the same time, Sarkozy is dealing with the first major challenge to his attempts to shake up the French social and economic system.

France has ground to a virtual standstill as public sector workers, mainly in transport and electricity, stage a massive strike over a proposed change to their special pension rights. Yesterday’s concurrent strike and divorce announcement is being called "Black Thursday" in France, and will probably come to be known as the day that Sarkozy lost control of the positive news agenda that he’s had since he became president five months ago. Sarkozy’s whole schtick has been his “ironman” persona, a strong, determined and energetic leader that is determined to strong-arm the changes that France desperately needs. But the collapse of his marriage so soon into his presidency, as well as speculation that the marriage actually ended before the election but Sarkozy has been keeping it a secret, will surely make him lose respect with the public.