The French Senate passed President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pension bill, paving the way for the minimum retirement age to increase to 62 from 60. The bill goes tomorrow for a final vote at the National Assembly.
Protests against the plan eased today as a quarter of France’s oil refinery workers agreed to go back to work and garbage collectors ended a 14-day walkout in Marseille.
After several strikes and demonstrations over the past seven weeks that left the country crippled with fuel shortages and some public transport disruptions, protesters at three of France’s 12 refineries voted yesterday to resume working. Almost all of the barricades at France’s 219 fuel depots have been lifted. Eighty per cent of service stations should be back in business today, Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said.
“I salute the return to dialogue and reason,” Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said on Radio Classique. “The economy needs to function and to do that we need an end to these blockages.” She said the strikes won’t result in the government changing its growth forecast for this year.
The Senate today passed the bill by 177 votes to 151. The protests and strikes cost the country between ¤200 million and ¤400 million ($280 million to $560 million) a day, Lagarde said yesterday. Labor unions have continued to call for strikes and marches on October 28, ahead of the bill’s planned enactment on November 15. About 300 students demonstrated today in front of the Senate.
Unions divided
The risk premium on French bonds decreased. Investors demanded 37 basis points more to buy 10-year French bonds than comparable German securities, against about 41 basis points on October 12. The spreads were at 30 basis points on September 6.
France’s nine remaining active refineries are either on strike or shut because of a lack of crude oil.