Paris at a standstill as transport strike bites

Parisians are braced for rush-hour chaos today as a nationwide strike was expected to cripple the public transport system and give President Nicolas Sarkozy his first real test after five months in office.

Eurostar trains to London and connections to neighbouring European countries will also be disrupted by the strike, called by unions protesting at Sarkozy’s plan to slash special retirement packages for some workers.

The cost-cutting plan is part of Sarkozy’s pledge to cut back on costly public services.

The series of strikes began last night and will last throughout today.

The first large-scale problems for travellers and commuters were expected this morning. Paris transport authority RATP said traffic would be “virtually nil” on most of its lines and the national rail network said it would be “nearly paralysed”.

With commuters relying on their cars, bottlenecks were expected as early as 5.30am on major routes into Paris, the national road information service said.

Sarkozy is facing a number of challenges simultaneously as the economy lags, despite his pledges to invigorate it, and signs of discord arise within his own party over the president’s policies. His rocky marriage is also front-page news.

The president himself appeared unfazed, saying he would push through the reforms regardless of public protest because “that’s what I was elected for”.

Sarkozy will be out of the country at the EU summit in Portugal today.

While France’s strikes are famously common, the country has not had any serious ones since Sarkozy took office. This week’s could be the biggest in years.

Union leaders hoped the walkout would recall 1995 strikes that paralysed the country and sapped then-President Jacques Chirac’s appetite for reform. Those strikes – also involving retirement rights – dragged on for three weeks.

Transport workers initiated the strikes, but employees of state-run electricity, gas and other services also could take part.

Most teachers were not planning to strike, but some schools were expected to close because of transport difficulties.

Air travel also faced potential disturbances, according to civil aviation authorities, who said there was a risk flights would be modified, particularly early in the day if administrative and airport staff had trouble getting to work.

The strikes could stretch into tomorrow. Three train federations were calling for a daily vote on whether to extend the strikes. Even if the protests end tonight, train traffic is expected to remain “greatly disrupted” the next day, SNCF official Guillaume Pepy told Le Parisien newspaper.

The pension plans under threat, which cover workers at an array of different companies and institutions, were originally devised to give advantages to those in physically demanding jobs, such as miners and train drivers.

Workers covered by the special pensions are able to retire earlier and on more generous terms than the vast majority of the French working population.

Sarkozy, who pledged changes to France’s employment protections during his election campaign earlier this year, says the benefits too costly, outdated and unfair.

Labour minister Xavier Bertrand said yesterday that the reforms were “indispensable”.

Meanwhile, Sarkozy is facing dissent within his own UMP party. MPs are split over government plans for a DNA test for aspiring immigrants, and have bristled at hints he will open his government to more opposition Socialists.

The economic outlook offers little inspiration. Public deficits are widening even as forecasts for French growth shrink to 1.8%, less than the 2% to 2.5% the government had targeted.

And on a personal level, a respected news weekly reported yesterday that Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia had informed a judge they were separating. The president’s office would not comment on the report.