French strike to keep retirement age at 60

May 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

PARIS

Strikes across France delayed flights, closed schools and frustrated commuters Thursday as hundreds of thousands of workers protested government plans to raise the retirement age past 60 — one of the lowest even in Europe.

President Nicolas Sarkozy says retiring so young is untenable given growing life spans, but unions see his planned reforms to France’s over-stretched pension system as yet another blow to Europe’s cherished social model.

His government wants to raise the retirement age to 61 or 62 — reforms that have been under discussion since well before the current European debt crisis. Sarkozy has called them his main priority this year.

Despite Thursday’s protests — by nearly 400,000 people, according to the Interior Ministry — France’s retirement plans pale before the harsh austerity measures instituted by other European nations, including Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Spain and Italy also have announced recent austerity plans as a debt crisis that started in Greece has weakened the euro and raised questions about the future of currency shared by 16 nations.

Germany recently raised its retirement age from 65 to 67 to offset an aging population. Many EU countries have 65 as the general retirement age, though some allow for earlier departures for women and those in professions considered arduous.