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
Pole of Communist Revival in France Pole of Communist Revival in France The Pole of Communist Revival in France (, PRCF) is a French political party founded in January 2004. It was an internal tendency of the French Communist Party (PCF) that left the party, rejecting the PCF's "mutation" beginning in the early 1990s. The president-delegate of the PRCF is Leon Landini, the president of the National Political Committee (CPN) is Jean-Pierre Hemmen, the national, directing political spokesman of "Communist Initiative" is George Gastaud, and George Hage, a member of parliament for the Nord departement and senior of the National Assembly, is the honorary president. The