Nationwide Strikes Follow Sarkozy's Poll Defeat

NICE, France (March 22) -- France's bureaucrats, transport workers and teachers increased the pressure on embattled President Nicolas Sarkozy today by going on strike across the country.

Just two days after Sarkozy's conservative party was crushed in regional elections, most French unions banded together to show their displeasure with the government's policies and went on strike.

Though Sarkozy was elected in 2007 on an American-style platform promising to boost and modernize the French economy, the worldwide recession torpedoed much of the goodwill toward his planned reforms.

Workers took to the streets in protest all over the country, from Lyon to Nice. Teachers walked off the job, and striking drivers disrupted both regional trains and the Paris Metro system, forcing commuters in the capital to either stay home or find other ways to get to work. Some postal workers and France Telecom employees also joined in the strike.

Though France was not as hard-hit as the U.S., Great Britain and Germany by the recession, workers are angry that unemployment is now at 10 percent and that the government is forecasting further job cuts. The French are also fearful of Sarkozy's next major reform project: overhauling the national pension system.

Sarkozy's initial reshuffling of his cabinet Monday did little to quell the growing unrest toward the reform-minded president. The president fired Labor Minister Xavier Darcos and replaced him with the Budget Minister Eric Woerth, which only angered civil servants since Woerth is known for ordering staffing cuts in the public sector.

"The issue is getting new direction in economic and social policies," said Bernard Thibault, head of France's biggest union, CGT.

François Baroin, a former minister under former President Jacques Chirac, replaced Woerth.

French socialists emerged victorious in Sunday's regional elections, winning almost 54 percent of the vote. The big win sent a clear message to Sarkozy that the country has become disenchanted with his right-leaning Union for a Popular Movement.

Sunday's elections involved 26 regional councils ranging from the French mainland to provinces in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.

Prime Minister François Fillon said this week that Sarkozy plans to press ahead with his reform projects despite public opposition. He vowed before Parliament that only half of all retiring civil servants will be replaced, arguing that reforms are necessary because the state can no longer afford the status quo.