France held its sixth nationwide day of strike action over pension reform on Tuesday, with the interior ministry counting 480,000 demonstrators on the streets by midday. Workers and students marched to oppose government plans to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, a bill nearing its final vote in a parliament where President Nicolas Sarkozy held a comfortable majority.
All 12 of France's oil refineries were shut by industrial action, leaving more than 2,600 petrol stations, roughly one in five nationwide, without fuel. Sarkozy, speaking from a summit in Deauville, promised to convene an emergency cabinet session on his return to Paris to "unblock a certain number of situations." Prime Minister Francois Fillon said fuel supplies would return to normal within four or five days.
Travel was badly disrupted. Half of flights from Paris Orly were cancelled and about one in three at Charles de Gaulle. Slightly more than half of high-speed TGV services ran, though Eurostar services to London were expected to operate normally.
Youth clashes erupted in Nanterre and Lyon, where police used tear gas and arrested nine people. A total of 1,158 people had been detained at demonstrations since the start of the week. A poll in Le Parisien found 71 percent of respondents expressed support or sympathy for the strike movement.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in October 2010, in its own words.