One of the uncertainties weighing on the euro is the suspicion harboured by investors that budget cuts, shrinking welfare entitlements and pension reforms will be derailed by mass protests in those countries where belts have to be at their tightest. Most attention focuses on Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland. Close behind as a cause of insomnia is doubt as to whether President Nicolas Sarkozy can maintain a three-year freeze on budget spending and carry through reforms to France's chronically unsound pension system, if French trade unions can control the streets as easily as in the past.
Naturally, union leaders are issuing bloodcurdling forecasts of industrial unrest. It is their job to do so. Creating expectations of worker militancy is part of the process of making it happen. Sparks of solidarity fall – it is hoped – into the dry tinder of fear, insecurity and anger to light the flame of protest against governments judged to be acting unfairly by listening to bankers more than to trade unions.
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