As thousands of French energy industry workers demonstrate in Paris against plans for partial privatization of state utilities, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's new government is fighting to avoid a similar confrontation with labor to the one that caused the demise of the last right-wing administration. The government seeks the privatization in an attempt to reduce the deficit to meet European Standards. The Unions protests are to support public service jobs in energy and to defend jobs, pay and retirement benefits. Former Prime Minister Alan Juppe's defeat in 1997 was contributed to his attempt to reform railway workers' pensions.
See "French energy workers strike", BBC News Online, October 2, 2002