French strikes in tough showdown
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Early Tuesday morning, clashes between youths and riot police occurred once again in Nanterre, a suburb in the capital. While in Paris, 300 students partially blocked traffic on the Place de la Republique.
![Students overturn a car during a demonstration over pension reforms with private and public sector workers in Lyon October 18, 2010. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20101020/000cf1bdd03f0e28802a02.jpg "Students overturn a car during a demonstration over pension reforms with private and public sector workers in Lyon October 18, 2010. [Xinhua]") |
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Students overturn a car during a demonstration over pension reforms with private and public sector workers in Lyon October 18, 2010. [Xinhua] |
A total of 266 demonstrations were scheduled in the country's main cities on the eve of the Senate's final vote on the reform bill on Wednesday.
The French upper house of parliament has approved by a narrow majority two pillar articles of the controversial bill, which will prolong the legal retirement age to 62 in 2018 and raise the minimum age for receiving a full pension regardless of contribution period from 65 to 67.
However, President Sarkozy has insisted on pressing ahead with the plan, which he says is vital to garner additional financial resources needed to pay pensions and trim the budget deficit.
"The reform is essential. France is committed and will go ahead with it as our German friends did a few years ago," said Sarkozy at a meeting with German and Russian counterparts in the northern French seaside town of Deauville.
"It is perfectly normal and natural that it creates concerns and opposition," he said.
Germany, Europe's leading economic power, voted in 2007 to increase its retirement age from 62 to 63 by 2029.
Union leaders said about 3.5 million people took part in last Saturday's nationwide demonstrations, while the government reported a million demonstrators.
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