Newly elected president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, is starting to turn the wheels of revolution and attempting to create a new French economy. The French economy's downfall is a set a laws that make hiring and firing difficult and pensions and benefits very expensive. This has led to chronic unemployment in France, currently 8.7 percent, which is 50 percent higher than the average for the industrilized nations. One mission Sarkozy will undertake for reform of the economy will be tackling labor unions, the first being that of France's railway system. This union enjoys benefits that other French citizens can only dream of, such as a retirement age of fifty and high pensions. Most citizens have faith that, if Sarkozy can break this union, further reforms will follow.
Newsweek. 3 December 2007. 48.
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