By Julio Godoy
PARIS, Jun 12 2003 (IPS)

ûThe French right-wing government is reviving old anathemas against the left in its moves to reform the welfare state, analysts say.

The government is also using repressive methods typical of authoritarian states to put down protests against its plans, opposition leaders say.

At a meeting of the ruling party UMP (Union for a Popular Movement) Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin said the leftist opposition to his plans to trim down the welfare state was proof that they have "forgotten a sense of what France is all about."

Raffarin went on to accuse socialist and communist parties of "treason to the fatherland." The leftists, he said, "prefer their party to their fatherland.."

Raffarin’s accusations echo political conflicts of the 1930s, when the ruling leftist Popular Front faced up to a right-wing opposition movement which was flirting with fascism. The right-wing parties then denounced the Popular Front as "anti-French".

Raffarin’s remarks provoked an angry dispute in the National Assembly, the French parliament. Socialist representatives demanded a public apology. "We love France as much as you do," Jean-Marc Ayrault, leader of the Socialist parliamentary group told Raffarin during the parliament session Tuesday evening.

The debate became so heated that president of the parliament Jean-Michel Debré suspended the session.

But the dispute continued the following day. Laurent Fabius, former Socialist prime minister, accused Raffarin of having vilified the opposition by raising "the old theme of treason to France."

Edwy Plenel, deputy chief editor of the newspaper Le Monde wrote: "This is the real Raffarin. To carry out his plans, he and the French right don’t hesitate to resort to insults we all hoped belonged to a past that wouldn’t come back. These insults belong to an epoch when the right thought that it had an exclusive monopoly over national interests."

Vanessa Schneider, commentator at the news daily Liberation, said Raffarin is getting "more and more rough." Schneider said Raffarin had made similar accusations during the electoral campaign a year ago "but at the time nobody was paying attention to what he said."

As Raffarin was accusing the leftist opposition of "treason against the fatherland", the French police were using tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators outside parliament house.

Unions opposing government plans to dismantle the welfare state say about a million people joined protests all over the country. In Paris, some 200,000 people took part in the march.

The demonstration outside the National Assembly was broken up just as a debate on the reform plans was beginning. The police pursued demonstrators through the nearby streets, and forced many to seek refuge at the Opera, a kilometre away from the National Assembly. The performance had to be abandoned in the face of the fleeing demonstrators and the pursuing police.

The police detained 60 demonstrators. Several people were injured during the incidents, including some journalists covering the demonstration.

Protests against plans to reform the pension system have been continuing since mid-May. Unions have been organizing "action days" against the plan every week, with mass demonstrations all over the country.

Strikes have halted urban and regional transport services, and they have affected airports, schools, hospitals, and even garbage collection.

The government proposes to increase the span of working years of government employees from 37.5 years now to 42 years by 2020 for them to get their full pension. The working years of private employees would rise from 40 years to 42.

The government plans to introduce a "premium" for later retirement. If French workers retire at the age of 63, instead of 60 today, they would receive a bonus of three percent in their pension.

The government is also preparing a corresponding penalty for workers who would prefer earlier retirement, equivalent to roughly one percent per year of their total pension.

Unions say these plans will amount to a reduction of pensions of up to 30 percent by 2020. Unions also argue that the government plans will mostly affect women.

The government insists it will go ahead with its plans despite union opposition.

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