French Unions Protest Pension 

Overhaul

• Wall Street JourNal  
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• WILLIAM  HOROBIN And NATHALIE BOSCHAT

PARIS—French unions expect two million protesters to demonstrate against the government's pension-overhaul plans on Tuesday, confronting head-on the central plank of President Nicolas Sarkozy's fiscal changes.

The changes would raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 by 2018 and increase to 67 from 65 the age at which workers can retire with full entitlements.

To help balance the books of the pension regime by 2018, the government also intends to increase taxes on savings and the highest earners, as well as scrapping some benefits for civil servants.

A poll released by French weekly Le Point Monday showed 62% of respondents support the protest and think the government needs to make some concessions. But nearly half of those questioned favored lifting the retirement age to 62.

The protest, accompanied by strikes that have caused significant disruptions to the country's public services and transport, is a major test of the government's resolve to push through structural reforms meant to bring down the public deficit. France is one of many European governments pushing through unpopular cuts to avoid a repeat of the sovereign-debt crisis that rattled global investors earlier this year.

Mr. Sarkozy's government has said the country's financial credibility was at stake as it zeroed in on reforming the deficit-fueling pension system. If nothing changes, the pension system will be in the red by €70 billion ($90.13 billion) in 2030 and €100 billion in 2050, from €32 billion currently.

France has committed to cutting the public deficit from a projected 8% of gross domestic product this year to 6% next year, 4.6% in 2012 and 3% in 2013, the maximum allowed under euro-zone treaties.

The pension reform, endorsed by the International Monetary Fund and credit-ratings agencies, has been at the center of workers' protests against the government's fiscal cuts. All eight leading French unions are organizing the protest and hope to rally a bigger turnout than the two million antireform demonstrators they said took to the streets at the end of June.