Up To Date france

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will seek to reduce France’s retirement age, according to aides, as workers set up a protest day against the proposal which is part of his unannounced austerity programme.

Facing the woes of sovereign debt crisis, several of France’s neighbours in Europe have declared massive cuts on spending in an attempt to lessen their piling deficits as well as restore the region’s stability.

Sarkozy has exercised more caution, insisting that the three-year freeze on spending isn’t an austerity measure. However, any threat to France’s traditional 60-year retirement age will have to overcome tough opposition.

The reduction of the minimum age to receive full-state pension from 65 years to 60 was among the key reforms made by Socialist president Francois Mitterrand’s government in 1984.

“This time, it’s war”, said the financial daily La Tribune after a series of leaks verified the long-suspected plan of Sarkozy to make later retirement among the key goals of his term’s second half.

Labour unions as well as left-wing opposition are gearing up with their response. France will be able to gauge their strength on Thursday, as they are set to hold large-scale rallies in the streets nationwide.

The right-wing governments’ attempts in the past decade to revamp state finance and lessen entitlements have been derailed most of the time by large-scale protests. However, Sarkozy’s backers insist that changes in pension are necessary.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and French First Lady Carla Bruni took a walk Monday on the Champs Elysees, the avenue in Paris that became a large farm as part of an event to draw focus on the agriculture crisis in France.

The first couple petted cows, shook hands, and offered farmers assurances that their plight on high costs of production as well as dropping prices of food was seriously taken. The young farmers’ association of France brought many trees, plants, flowers, as well as livestock, to the most famous boulevard in France on Saturday to start the two-day campaign called, “Nature Capital.”

More than 800,000 visitors went to the Champs Elysees during the first day of the event, said organisers and police. The people behind the event are hoping for a turnout of more than 2 million visitors.

On Monday, Sarkozy was greeted with “Bravo” and “we need” you chants from farmers who traditionally comprise part of the voter base of his right-wing party.

“Look he’s Aquarius like me”, Sarkozy mentioned when a farmer gave him a calf born in January.

The president also said to another farmer “I’m with you”, during his 30-minute visit.

Meanwhile, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was given a crash-course on cattle feeds.

“The president has come to hear what people have to say”, stated Young Farmers’ Association President William Villeneuve, who personally gave the first couple a tour on the Champs Elysees gardens.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and newly elected British Prime Minister David Cameron started their so-called new partnership on Thursday, as both heads of state vowed to cooperated to implement a new international banking regulation.

Europe had some concerns regarding Cameron’s initial trip as prime minster due to the Conservative leader’s eurosceptic reputation. However, Sarkozy was smiling as he received the British prime minister at the Elysee.

After a brief working dinner, the two leaders attend a press conference to put emphasis on the several ways they could cooperate amidst the financial crisis currently affecting Europe.

“One of the areas in which the president and me have very much a shared agenda is making sure that at the forthcoming G8 and G20 we really look at reform of our banking system”, Cameron said to reporters.

Britain and France will be attending the G20 summit at Toronto together with the most powerful economies in the world in June. The French president wants to utilise his group presidency in 2011 to reform the global financial system.

Cameron stated that his country and France would support “banking levy” to get back funds given to banks that have already made profit after the bail-outs.

He also added that both he and Sarkozy supported American President Barack Obama’s view that high street retail banks must not be involved with very risky trades, which he refers to as “casino banking”.

On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy denied his country is having a rift with Germany about the European debt crisis, as divisions in the eurozone shook world markets and protestors reject Spain and Greece’s austerity measures.

Sarkozy insisted that no “disagreements” exist between him and German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding the overhauling of the eurozone due to the recent woes of the financial market regarding the unity of the EU during times of crisis.

Sarkozy mentioned he supported Merkel’s urge for tougher punishment against countries that exceed the allowable levels of budget deficit, including the withdrawal of voting rights and EU funds.

“In terms of our relations with Angela Merkel, we’re doing everything to ensure that they are in harmony, that they are complementary, that they are full and that they show a common ambition”, Sarkozy explained.

“We have no disagreements together. That’s why we talk together”, he said to reporters.

Despite the efforts made by the two biggest economies in Europe to stop the crisis, global stock markets endured a new sell-off because of the surprising rise in jobless claims in the US.

The head of Germany also moved earlier to impose tax on financial markets to help limit excesses, which are blamed for the economic slump worldwide.

“We have now stated that we will campaign for a tax on the financial markets and we will campaign for that at our (G20) summit in Canada”, Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a financial regulation summit.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday patted the back of David Cameron upon the latter’s appointment as the new prime minister of Britain.

Expressing his congratulations to the new British PM, Sarkozy said he was looking forward to working well with Cameron in continuing the wonderful relations existing between their countries.

The French president’s extended his “warm congratulations for the success of his high mission”, voicing hopes of bolstering “the exceptional ties between France and the United Kingdom”.

Sarkozy stressed on the importance for the two nations to work hand-in-hand in dealing with issues in the fast changing world. He underscored the need to work together in pursuing the battle against the global fiscal crisis, climate change, as well as enhancing worldwide security.

Cameron, who is only 43, is so far the youngest to take the PM seat in the UK’s political history. His appointment came after Gordon Brown decided to leave office.

Gordon, who is also the Labour leader, admitted defeat following days of stalled general elections.

The former prime minister said in a statement, “I wish the next prime minister well as he makes the important choices for the future. Only those who have held the office of prime minister can understand the full weight of its responsibilities and its great capacity for good”.

“I wish my successor well in that role well and I will stand by Labour’s new leader, whoever that may be, loyally and without equivocation, because one thing will not change: I am Labour and Labour I will always be”, he said in a speech he made in front of his party workers.

The new Pompiduo Center art museum, hailed as the latest architectural wonder in France, was visited by French President Nicolas Sarkozy today, a day prior to its opening on Wednesday.

The splendour of the museum’s innovative feat not only caught the attention of the art world, but also of the country’s most senior official. President Sarkozy paid the new architecture a visit today before it opens to the public tomorrow.

The new art museum located in the eastern French city of Metz was applauded for its complex free-form roof. After its public opening, the odd and stunning building may definitely surpass the beauty of the Dalis, Picassos and Warhols included in its display.

The building became more surreal due to its setting in the middle of the sombre gray clock towers and church steeples in Metz. The city was chosen to become the location for this building because it is located near France’s borders with Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.

The media got a preview of the museum through an outpost of the Pompidou Center for modern and contemporary art in Paris on Monday, merely two days before the grand opening.

The art museum is the first Parisian museum to get on what authorities referred to as “cultural decentralisation”, or placing art centres in unlikely areas located outside the capital, with its groups of masterpiece-appreciating tourists and savvy locals. The Louvre is also planning to open a branch in Lens in 2012.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy started his trip to China Wednesday in an effort to strengthen relations challenged by the Tibet issue two years ago and win the support of Beijing on the new anti-Iran sanctions.

Sarkozy is scheduled for a meeting with China’s top leaders including his counterpart Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in the Chinese capital before moving to Shanghai for the beginning of the World Expo.

The French president, along with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and his delegation of ministers, was set to visit the old capital of Xi’an – the home of the famous terracotta warriors.

“China attaches great importance” to the visit of Sarkozy, said a source from Beijing. A source in the French capital added that “2010 will be an exceptional year for Franco-Chinese ties”, with “a return to unclouded relations”.

France hopes that it could gain the support of China on imposing new rounds of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme; however, it should first convince Beijing two years after its fiery disagreement about Tibet.

In March 2008, the relations of the two countries started to become unpleasant when the French president criticised the security crackdown in the Tibetan region after protests resulted to violence.

After a month, China was angered after pro-Tibet protesters shoved and booed the Olympic torch as it was carried from Paris to the Beijing Games.

Tensions peaked during the French president’s meeting with the exiled Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama in December 2008. But tensions started to ease when Sarkozy talked with the Chinese president during the G20 conference on the financial crisis in 2009.

During a trip to China last December, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said that the “misunderstandings” between the two countries were just part of the past.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his party came under pressure to respond to a funding allegations linked to the Pakistani bomb attack, which killed 11 engineers.

Sarkozy became the spokesperson for the 1995 presidential bid of former premier Edouard Balladur, whose campaign was suspected to have taken in money from a submarine deal with the Pakistani navy.

Balladur was defeated in the race and his rival Jacques Chirac cancelled a good deal of commissions that should have been given as payment to Pakistani officers. In 2007, Sarkozy himself assumed the presidency.

A bomb that exploded in Karachi in May 2002 killed 11 French naval engineers who worked in Pakistan to build the subs. A judge in France investigating the incident now believes it may have been done as revenge for the funding issues.

Sarkozy and Balladur dismissed the claim when it was initially revealed last year, but new allegations in the daily Liberation on Monday have revived interest on the issue and opposition politicians demand answers.

“Now that these revelations are on the table, Mr Balladur has to explain himself”, said Pierre Moscovici, a Socialist lawmaker, arguing that the current government could also publish confidential documents related to the sale.

“So now we need state authorities, starting with the president and the minister of defence, to explain what happened”, Moscovici added.

The lawyer fighting for the Karachi victim’s families used the recent reports to renew allegations that magistrates are not handling the investigation well in fears that it might be connected to Sarkozy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy congratulated Viktor Orban, the right-wing leader of Hungary, on Monday after his party won a two-third majority in the election last weekend.

Sarkozy, whose father was born in Hungary, said the victory in the elections bestowed a “special responsibility” over Orban as his country is set to assume the European Union’s presidency next year.

“Hungary’s European commitment and its unity will be of the utmost necessity during this period, for the good of Hungary and of all of Europe,” said Sarkozy in a letter released by his office to Orban.

France aims for “the deepening of our bilateral relations in all areas — political, economic, commercial and cultural — in the spirit of the Franco-Hungarian strategic partnership that allows us to look to the future in a friendly and confident manner”, the French president added.

The Fidesz party of Orban won 263 out of the 386 parliament seats, making it the first in history to seize a two-thirds majority, which gives it the power to make changes in the constitution.

The recent elections ended the eight-year rule of socialists in Hungary and marked the return of Orban. He was the prime minister of the country form 1998 to 2002.

“After these years spent in the opposition, you have been able to build a political dynamic that today allows you to lead the government with the support of a large part of your citizens”, Sarkozy wrote.

The French president, who doesn’t speak Hungarian, visited Budapest in 2007 and addressed parliament members.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he was certain that his country’s Rafale fighter jets would be selected by Brazil for its armed forces after a heatedly contested bidding procedure.

“I am confident. Things are progressing”, Sarkozy responded to questions regarding the contract following a meeting with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, on the sidelines of the summit for nuclear security held in the US.

Brazil stated it would prefer to buy 36 units of semi-stealth Rafale fighter jets of France, but a strong agreement was yet to be announced.

The Brazilian president’s announcement of his choice is expected to come in the middle part of May.

“If it’s a decision taken by the president and the government, it’s inevitably a political decision”, said Sarkozy.

He, meanwhile, emphasised that “it’s not just a political criterion. The Rafale is an excellent plane…”

“President Lula and I really have a great bond. I know what he’s thinking”, added Sarkozy.

The Dassault-made Rafale is considered the frontrunner in the legal tender also competed by the Swedish Gripen NG created by Saab, and the United States’ F/A-18 Super Hornet made by the world’s biggest aircraft manufacturer, Boeing.

The agreement is worth $4–7 billion, which would cover the crafts’ maintenance, armaments and peripheral industrial connections.

Brazil was also expected to purchase another 100 jets from France in the future.