France braces for further pension protests

The strikes have blockaded oil refineries and depots, leading to fears of fuel shortages
France is bracing for another day of mass protests over the government's pension reforms.

Thousands of students are expected to join union workers in demonstrations in Paris and several other cities against plans to raise the retirement age.

Strikes have shut most of France's oil refineries and depots and the fuel pipeline to Paris's main airports has been closed.

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Officials say there are enough fuel reserves to outlast the strikes.

The protests and strikes erupted after centre-right President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, and from 65 to 67 for a full state pension.

More than a million people took to the streets in the latest national protest on Tuesday. France's main unions have also called for a day of nationwide strikes and protests for 19 October.

More than 300 high schools across the country have been affected by strikes and blockades as students have joined the pension protests.

Fuel fears
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Analysis


Christian Fraser
BBC News, Paris
Look back in recent French history and it is the students who have had extraordinary success in defeating government reform.

Young people may seem to have little immediate stake in pension reform and the government even argues it is in their best interests.

The burden of paying a vast state pension deficit will inevitably fall on the next generation.

But the young, mostly leftist union supporters, say it will keep older people in work longer, meaning fewer jobs for younger people.

The government knows that when the students are involved it is difficult to contain their protests, with the obvious danger of it spreading to the always combustible Parisian suburbs, the banlieues.

Trapil, the company that operates the fuel pipeline to the Paris airports told French media that the capital's main airport, Charles de Gaulle, could run out of fuel as early as next week.

A company spokesman told AFP news agency: "Orly airport has stocks for 17 days, and Roissy [Charles de Gaulle] for at least the weekend."

The pipeline is supplied by the Total refinery at Grandpuits, in Seine-et-Marne, which is stopping production because of the strikes.

A spokesman for Aeroports de Paris, the authority that operates both airports, told Reuters news agency it was "not at all worried about stocks" - but did not say how long these would last.

In recent days government officials have tried to play down fears of petrol shortages, insisting that France has enough to see out the industrial action.

However, panic buying has broken out in some areas, putting supplies under greater strain.

France's main lorry drivers' union, CFDT, has called on its members to join Tuesday's strike.

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says another concern for the government will be the growing involvement of the student lobby.

Seventy percent of people polled this week think the sporadic strikes will build into a national protest movement like the one in 1995 and over half of those questioned said they would support it, our correspondent reports.

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