France faces economic reality
(From The Japan Times October 31 issue)

経済的現実に直面したフランス

French President Nicholas Sarkozy's plans to reform the pension system have triggered widespread public protests. Yet even the prospect of violence is unlikely to change Mr. Sarkozy's mind. Many French citizens consider retirement at age 60 a birthright, but France, like many other developed economies, cannot afford such largess. Mr. Sarkozy is merely the leading edge of France's new economic reality.

To deliver on his pledge to revitalize the economy, Mr. Sarkozy has proposed increasing the minimum standard retirement age to 62 from 60. The move, undoing reform passed in 1983 that lowered the retirement age from 65, is intended to staunch the red ink flowing from the state-run pension system and demonstrate government's seriousness about getting its economic house in order.

Yet French citizens consider reform an assault on their rights, if not their very identity. It prompted millions of people to take to the streets at the end of October in protest. Demonstrators have blocked airports and fuel depots, taking "go-slow" measures on buses, trams, trains and even highways. About 40 percent of French gas stations have run out of fuel, prompting the government to order the police to clear fuel depots.

French protests have derailed previous attempts at pension and labor reform, most recently in 2006. The protesters are hoping once again to paint the government as the handmaiden of economic interests hostile to those of ordinary French men and women.

That strategy is working. An overwhelming majority is sympathetic with the strikers, but the mood may change if violence grows or daily life is disrupted by fuel shortages. Mr. Sarkozy relishes a good fight and shows little inclination to compromise, especially when his stance allows him to rally the right — often divided — behind him.

There is more at stake here than Mr. Sarkozy's political future. Pension reform is a response to a new economic reality. The French are living longer, straining their pension system. As a result, the government forecasts a $44.6 billion shortfall in the account. That is the real problem.

サルコジ仏大統領による年金改革計画は大規模な抗議行動を引き起こしたが、大統領は妥協しない態度を見せた。国民は60歳定年を当然の権利とみなしているが、今の仏経済にその余裕はなく、大統領は現状の最先端にいるだけだ。

年金受給開始年齢を62歳に延長するという内容は、1983年に65歳から60歳に早めたものを取り消す形だ。

2006年の年金改革は抗議行動で頓挫、今回も抗議者は政府を一般市民の敵に仕立て上げようとした。年金改革は大統領の政治生命以上の問題だ。高齢化により年金制度が逼迫、政府が赤字446億ドルを予測している現状こそが真の問題である。