French pension protests loom - After a quiet summer, anti-austerity protests will return to the streets of the eurozone today as French unions hold a day of protest action against Francois Hollande's pension reforms.

Let by the hardline CGT union, demonstrations will take place in 180 locations across France - as workers show their anger against Hollande's proposal to make them pay larger contributions and wait longer to collect their pensions.

Student unions and far-left groups are also expected to join the protests, in the latest expression of disquiet against Hollande's government.

The plans are meant to target France's pensions black hole, which is on track to hit €20bn by the end of the decade.

As Reuters explains:The draft pension law, to be presented to cabinet on September 18th and sent to parliament shortly thereafter, aims to wipe out an annual deficit that will otherwise hit €20bn in 2020. Its main effect is to extend the pay-in period for pension contributions to 43 years by 2035 from 41.5 now.Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's government submitted a new reform draft to France's top administrative court on Friday adding an amendment that will reduce advantageous conditions for pensioners who have more than three children starting in 2020. 

Analysts have criticised the bill as being too timid, but the CGT argues that it places an unfair burden on workers.

Opinion poll data released last night found that 61% of the public back the protestors, with four in five saying they are concerned about their pensions.

However, the word from France is that today's protests are likely to be subdued, with some moderate unions declining to take part. It's unlikely to be a repeat of the pension protests that gripped the country for days in 2010.

Still, it should give an insight into the public mood in France, which faces many more tough decisions to bring its deficit into line in the years ahead.

I'll try to track the protests through the day, along with other key events as usual.

Christine Lagarde, one of the most powerful women in the world as head of the International Monetary Fund, is facing acute embarrassment after a letter in which she urged former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to "use me" was found during a police raid on her Paris flat. An undated copy of the letter was found at Mrs Lagarde’s flat in Paris during a raid by police investigating a spiraling financial scandal surrounding payments to businessman Bernard Tapie.

"I'm on your side to serve you and serve your projects for France," she said in the letter.

"Use me during the time that suits you best and fits your action and your cast....If you decide to use me, I need you as guide and supporter: without guide, I might be ineffective, without support I might be implausible."

She signed off: “With my immense admiration, Christine L.”

She also claimed that she does not have "personal political ambitions" and remarked she does not want to become "an ambitious servant", referring to some members of Sarkozy's entourage.

The letter was leaked to French newspaper Le Monde, and its publication has caused acute embarrassment for the head of the IMF.

Ms Lagarde was finance minister during Mr Sarkozy's term as President, before stepping down to become managing director of the Washington-based IMF in 2011.

Her Paris flat was raided as part of an investigation into her handling of a 2008 compensation payment to a businessman supporter of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, her lawyer said.

Police are investigating claims that Lagarde, when French Finance Minister under Sarkozy, acted illegally in approving the €285m arbitration payout to Bernard Tapie. Ms Lagarde denies any wrongdoing.

French President François Hollande pledged to reverse the country’s surging unemployment rate as he gave his first New Year’s televised address at the Elysée Palace on Monday.

Speaking of the “serious and legitimate” concerns of the public, Hollande acknowledged the “fits and starts” of his first six months in office, but said France would emerge from the financial crisis “sooner and stronger” than expected because of the course he and his government had taken. “We’ve set the course – jobs, competitiveness and growth – and I will not deviate. It’s the future of France.”

With the number of jobless breaking the three-million barrier for the first time this year, Hollande said “all our efforts will be aimed at a single objective: reversing the unemployment trend within a year, whatever the cost”.

He also promised to tackle what he described as “useless spending” in government. “The French public’s money is hard earned and must be put to the service of a thrifty and exemplary state”.

“Those with more will have to contribute more”

But speaking of his controversial 75% income tax levy, which was overturned by France’s highest legal body on Saturday, the Socialist president said that while the law would be “redesigned” its objective would remain the same. “Those with more will have to contribute more,” he said.

Hollande also stressed the increase in teacher numbers he promised during his election manifesto and touted his delivery of promises to allow 60-year-olds the right to retire if they began working early, along with the return of French combat troops from Afghanistan.

Briefly mentioning the controversial issues of same-sex marriage and euthanasia, Hollande stressed the importance of civil rights. “We have all it takes to succeed,” he said, adding that France is most successful “when it moves forward on equal rights”.

Ending his address with a thought for the “sick, lonely, disabled and unassisted” people in France, the French president said social security was as important as a competitive economy and called for a “collective effort” to make that balance possible.

The euro bailout fund (the EFSF) is to be leveraged up to €1 trillion (£878bn) but we are not told how.

JOURNAL DE DIMANCHE - Nicolas Sarkozy came under fire from opposition leaders for seeking China’s help to resolve the euro area’s debt crisis. “It’s shocking,” Martine Aubry, the general secretary of the Socialist Party, said in the Sunday newspaper, Journal du Dimanche. “The Europeans, by turning to the Chinese, are showing their weakness. How will Europe be able to ask China to stop undervaluing its currency or to accept reciprocal commercial accords?” Sarkozy reached out last week to his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to build support for an enlarged rescue fund designed to solve the region’s sovereign-debt crisis. The leaders talked just hours after a euro-region summit on Oct. 27 ended with an agreement to boost the European Financial Stability Facility to about 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), leveraging existing guarantees by as much as five times. French opposition party objections to a Chinese role come six months before the country’s presidential election, and amid growing concern about public debt in France and in Europe. France’s public debt, which is more than 80 percent of gross domestic product, and the budget deficit are considered by a third of the French as the most important issues confronting the economy, above purchasing power and unemployment, according to a poll published Sunday in Ouest-France newspaper.

Greeks are more distrustful than ever of their political class and its ability to lead them out of the crippling financial crisis. Polls show growing contempt for all parties and the discredited political system. Unemployment is at a record high of 16% – far higher for young people. Those lucky enough to still have a job have suffered dramatic salary cuts and tax increases. Doctors and nurses recently staged walkouts over hospital cuts. Taxi drivers have hobbled Greece with strikes in the past two weeks, protesting at government plans to open up the industry. Their tactics included blocking ports and opening the Acropolis ticket office to let tourists in free. Crucially, Greece's long-running "civil disobedience" movement, where ordinary citizens refuse to pay for anything from road tolls and bus tickets to extra doctors' charges, has not fizzled out in the summer holidays. The "We Won't Pay" offensive is championed as the purest form of "people's power". Organisers warn it could gain renewed force in September as the government launches a new round of financial restraint. On the main Athens-Thessaloniki road, as drivers file back into Thessaloniki from a Sunday at the beach, a crowd of civilians in fluorescent orange safety bibs stand guard at the barriers to the main road toll into Greece's second city. Their jackets are emblazoned with "Total Disobedience". They push aside the red-and-white barriers and wave drivers through without paying the €2.80 toll. Banners read: "We won't pay", and "We won't give money to foreign bankers". Drivers gratefully drive through, some giving the thumbs up.

Shimon Galon, the head of GTC Romania real estate developer, says the retail market is going to collapse unless the Government takes steps to make consumers start buying again, considering developers and retailers have already done all they could to attract clients. "Last year, everything stood still, this year started better, but after the Government's measures, buyers have been disappearing over the recent months. Some have run out of money, and those who still have money push it deeper in their pockets.
The change can only come from the Government. No private investor can make the market move again. Everything that was up to investors has been done: developers have offered smaller rents, retailers have offered discounts," stated Shimon Galon, CEO with GTC, a major developer domestically.The retail market has been the hardest hit after public workers' salaries were cut by 25% and the VAT was raised."On the retail market, the problem is simple. People will not buy, and retailers are not selling. (...) The number of visitors has risen, people are coming to malls, but are not buying. I cannot say I do not have retailers or visitors, but if we do not find a solution for people to start buying, the market is going to collapse," Galon said.sex,matures,mother,xhamster,adult,adulat video