November 2007 strikes in France retire with full pension benefits after 37.5 years rather than 40 years. The Sarkozy administration claims the current pension system allows some public sector workers to retire as early as age 50. The government calculated the cost of these early-retirement benefits at $7 billion a year. President Nicolas Sarkozy felt that his victory in the 2007 presidential election gave him a mandate to carry out labour reforms, stating "I said before I was elected what I would do," and "we will do these reforms because they have to be done." He declared the strikes a test of political will. "I
Internet in France been seen as outdated and consequently all the fixed broadband internet offers in France are unmetered. Initially the Internet was only available to a small number of users in a few companies and universities. The general public began to have access to Internet starting from 1994, and was democratized in the early 2000s with the emergence of ADSL. During the summer of 1988, the INRIA connected the Sophia Antipolis NSFNet network to Princeton by a satellite link leased to France Telecom and MCI. The link became operational on 8 August 1988, and allowed INRIA researchers to access the US network