Unions stage third round of pension protests

French unions were stepping up pressure on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservatives today in nationwide marches over the government’s plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

The protests will be the third of their kind over the last month, but the first on a weekend – boosting organisers’ hopes for a big turnout. The others were accompanied by broad strikes and each drew at least a million people.

Conservative MPs have already pushed the plan through its first legislative hurdle: the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, has adopted the bill.

The Senate takes the measure up on Tuesday and protesters are planning to gather there too as debate gets under way.

The government has expressed willingness to alter some parts of the final language of the bill, but CGT union leader Bernard Thibault said yesterday that the offers were “secondary tweaks”.

France is among many European governments looking to cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the good life on the continent.

A €101.7bn bail-out for Greece has added to the sense of urgency this year.

French protesters are angry about the government’s plan to do away with the near-sacred promise of retirement at 60, forcing people to work until 62 because they are living longer. The aim is to bring the money-draining pension system back into the black by 2018.

The government says it needs to trim the pension system in order to save it, and have noted that other countries in Europe are raising their already-higher retirement ages.