PENSION RALLIES HIT FRENCH CITIES
Baku, September 7 (AZERTAC). Hundreds of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of France to register anger over the government`s austerity measures.
The rallies come as a 24-hour national strike has disrupted flight and rail services, and closed schools.
Officials said 450,000 people were marching in cities across the country, ahead of the main rally in Paris later.
The activists are angry at government plans to overhaul pensions and raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
The BBC`s Christian Fraser in Paris says French retirement age is well below the European average, but the proposal would represent a sizeable jump in a country that guards jealously its way of life.
Under current rules, both men and women in France can retire at 60, providing they have paid social security contributions for 40.5 years - although they are not entitled to a full pension until they are 65.
The government says it will save 70bn euros (£58bn) by raising the retirement age to 62 by 2018, the qualification to 41.5 years, and the pension age to 67 by 2018.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says reforms are needed to cope with an ageing population and the country`s high public spending.
The government is also looking to find 100bn euros of savings in three years, and is planning cuts in the bloated civil sector, our correspondent adds.
Some secondary school teachers went on strike on Monday, protesting against plans to cut 7,000 jobs in education.
State railway operator SNCF said only two out of five TGV high-speed trains were running, and there was a greatly reduced service on many other lines.
Eurostar said its trains between France and London would operate normally.
Some air-traffic controllers walked out, forcing the cancellation or delay of about a quarter of flights from Paris airports.
Air France said it was operating all of its long-haul flights as planned, but short and medium-haul flights had been affected.
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