Striking French unions went on strike today shutting down trains, planes, buses, underground services, post offices and schools in a dispute over raising the age of retirement.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has been sidelined. President Jacques Chirac has been forced into a subtle switch of loyalties to save face. And the two leaders’ mutual rival, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, is now at centre-stage.

The French government and opposition parties were squaring off today on plans to reform the short working week – a pillar of the previous Socialist administration now denounced by critics as economically crippling.