Mr Jacques Chirac today defended his government's pension reform plans by saying the ageing population made change unavoidable and that more measures would be necessary at a later stage.
"We have no idea what the situation will be in 2015, both in terms of demographics and in terms of growth," the French president said in his traditional Bastille Day television interview.
"It follows that there will certainly be more efforts to be made, but there is no question of committing to them before we know the true picture," Mr Chirac said.
The centre-right government is being put to the test over its unpopular plans to overhaul the state pension system.
Over a million people have taken to the streets in protest since plans were unveiled to make public sector workers pay into the system for as long as private-sector employees and eventually shift everyone to 42 years of pension contributions.
Mr Chirac earlier swept down the Champs Elysees in an open car as part of a flamboyant Bastille Day military parade, with some 4,700 police deployed and tight security after an assassination attempt from a neo-Nazi in the crowd during the 2002 parade.