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Paris: President Nicolas Sarkozy, looking to rebuild his shattered popularity ratings, promised yesterday to preserve France's 35-hour work week and cushion the impact of soaring energy costs for the hardest hit.
In a dawn media blitz, Sarkozy visited France's biggest food market and then went on breakfast radio to reassure people that he understood their concerns over rising prices.
The president ruled out any budget austerity, laid to rest fears his government might hike the retirement age and denied rumours of a possible increase in the television licence fee.
"I don't believe in austerity ... What did austerity measures bring [in the past]? Higher unemployment, higher deficit and less growth," Sarkozy told RTL radio.
Sarkozy's ratings have hit record lows for a president one year into office, with voters angry about the rising cost of living and disenchanted with a ceaseless churn of reforms.
In an effort to cool the political temperature, Sarkozy ruled out any move to boost the minimum work week, ignoring calls from within his own UMP party to scrap the controversial 35-hour week introduced 10 years ago by the Socialists.
'Economic catastrophe'
"There will always be a fixed working week and it will be 35 hours," said Sarkozy, whose mantra ahead of the 2007 election was "work more to earn more".
He has previously called the 35-hour week an "economic catastrophe" but appears reluctant to scrap it, partly to avoid a confrontation with trade unions and partly because he hopes tax breaks on overtime will lift the economy.
"We will have higher [tax] returns because people will be working more," he said.
Sarkozy has faced numerous protests over his reform plans and last week hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to denounce moves to make employees work for 41 years instead of 40 to qualify for a full state pension.
The president refused to back down on the proposal, but added that he would not follow advice from employers' organisation MEDEF to raise the pensionable age to 63 from 60.
"I made no such commitment to the French people, therefore I have no mandate to do it," he said.
One of the most high-profile protests in France has involved fishermen. The government has already offered some 110 million euros of aid for the fishermen for 2008 and on Tuesday Sarkozy suggested siphoning off extra revenues from sales taxes on petrol to give to the hardest hit sectors, including the fishing industry.
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