Nov 21
Sarkozy pledges not to surrender on reform plans in the face of strikes
Some commuters cross the tracks as others wait on a crowded platform after getting out of their train at the Saint Lazare station in Paris, Tuesday.
PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted, in the face of broad strikes by civil servants and transit workers Tuesday, that France needs reform, saying “we will not surrender and we will not retreat.”
Adopting a defiant tone, Sarkozy said French voters gave him a mandate to carry out economic reforms when they elected him in May. He urged strikers to return to work.
“France needs reforms to meet the challenges imposed on it by the world,” he said in a speech to a congress of mayors. “I will not betray the trust of those who elected me.”
Sarkozy previously had remained uncharacteristically silent about the transit strikes that have hobbled the national rail network and transport in and around the capital for a week.
On Tuesday, he said the walkout must stop before it brings “the economy to its knees.”
“You have to know how to stop a strike,” said the conservative. “You have to think of all of those who have to go to work.”
He reiterated his determination to press ahead with the pension reform that prompted labor leaders to call the open-ended strike. But he also suggested that he is not looking to crush unions in the reform process.
“I do not want a winner and loser,” Sarkozy said.