France pension row – petrol stations run dry

Truck drivers have already begun disrupting traffic on major highways, while airport staff, bus and train drivers, teachers and postal workers have joined today’s nationwide strikes.

Young people put up makeshift barricades in the Place de la Republique in the centre of Paris, while there were reports of scuffles between riot police and high school students in the suburb of Nanterre. Demostrations and marches are planned in some 200 towns and cities around the country.

Oil refineries
Workers at France’s 12 oil refineries are now in their seventh day of open-ended industrial action, with protestors blocking access to fuel distribution depots around the country. A spokesman for Exxon Mobil said the situation was now ‘critical’ – adding that diesel had completely run out in Paris and across Western France. Supermarkets say their petrol pumps will run dry by the end of the week.

That’s triggered plenty of panic buying, with long queues building up outside those petrol stations which are still open. Half of all flights in and out of Orly airport in Paris have been cancelled – while around 30% of flights at other airports were also halted.

“The reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it.” President Sarkozy

Emergency reserves
The International Energy Agency said France had around 98 days of fuel stocks left – and had begun investigating whether to dip into its emergency reserves in an effort to stave off the crisis.

Police have also begun intervening to break up blockades outside some fuel depots – as Prime Minister Francois Fillon warned the demonstrators were breaking the law. “The right to strike is not the right to bar access to a fuel depot”, he said on Sunday – declaring he wouldn’t let the French economy suffocate.

“The government can win it, despite threats of violence in the street.” Polling expert Jerome Sainte Marie

Other ministers have insisted there’s ample fuel to go round. Industry Minister Christian Estrosi claimed the Government was in control – but the administration has now admitted it has activated an emergency crisis unit tasked with making sure supplies are maintained.

The President insisted again today he would not back down over his plans to raise the retirement age to 62 – “the reform is essential and France is committed to it and will go ahead with it”, he said.

Public backing
The Bill has already been approved by the lower houses of Parliament – the Senate is expected to follow suit when it votes on the package this week.
Despite the widespread disruption, a vast majority of French people are solidly behind the protests – 71 per cent of people surveyed over the weekend said they either supported or were sympathetic to the strikers.

Polling expert Jerome Sainte Marie warned that getting the measures passed wouldn’t provide legitimacy. “The government can win it, despite threats of violence in the street, despite shortages, or simply by a vote of Parliament,” he told the New York Times. But, he warned, “these 71 per cent translate into the cost of victory: it will be high.”