In his first parliamentary address in mid-January after coming to power, France's Prime Minister, François Bayrou, offered the chance to renegotiate the contested plan to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64.
France has a retirement age lower than many of its European neighbors, but many French people view an early retirement as sacrosanct. It was part of the social contract developed at the end of World War II in which the government would look after you in your retirement if you worked a fixed number of years.
