Benefits

French society and political culture have changed. These changes were accumulating gradually over the decades, but the intellectual and political elite worked hard to pretend that nothing was happening. The left and the right in a touching unity ignored the process unfolding in front of their eyes that began back in 1995. It all started with a strike of public sector workers against the attempts to cancel the "benefits " for those who worked for the state. Suddenly, for the authorities, the press and even for the trade unions, the people, who were not affected by the proposed change, overwhelmingly supported the strikers. Workers in the private sector stood in solidarity with their colleagues, employed by the state. Transportation workers strike led to a massive influx of people into the streets.