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Defiant millions take to the streets in battle over Nicolas Sarkozy's cuts
The clouds hung heavily over the Place de la République and the statue of Marianne, France's heroine, was draped with demonstrators' balloons.
As protesters marched on the historic Parisian site of proletarian revolt, 17-year-old Romane scowled at the rain-filled sky. "At least this is proof we're not just here for the good weather," she said. On her jacket was pinned a placard scrawled with marker pen. "Carla, we're like you," it read. "We've been screwed by Sarko too."
Nicolas Sarkozy had feared that the rentrée–the time after the holidays when France returns to normal–would be warm, encouraging protesting masses on to the wide, Haussmann-designed boulevards, and he was right to be worried.
Languishing in the polls and engaged in an almighty battle to push through his flagship pension reform–taking the retirement age from 60 to 62–the man once cast by some as the Gallic Margaret Thatcher is facing his most testing showdown with the notoriously bellicose unions.
The demonstration that drew people out in their hundreds of thousands was the fifth since last month, and Tuesday will bring another. Last week the protest movement snowballed, with strikes that closed schools, led to flights being canceled and stopped trains. Fuel refineries halted production and parts of the country are already suffering shortages.