After growing bottlenecks at France’s gas stations, President Emmanuel Macron’s government is cracking down on strikes in the refineries to avert a blockade of the country.
Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has ordered the necessary personnel at the Port-Jérôme refinery in Normandy to be put to work on Wednesday, government spokesman Olivier Véran said in Paris. Coercive measures may also be taken on Wednesday for a second refinery in Dunkirk.
After around two weeks of strikes, there are now bottlenecks at around a third of French petrol stations, drivers are queuing, jostling or driving through the cities for hours in search of fuel. Craftsmen can no longer use some delivery vans due to a lack of fuel and the home nursing staff have to cancel appointments. And now there is concern that bus services and farmers will also be hampered. To the outrage of motorists, some petrol stations also increased their prices sharply.
Six of the country’s seven refineries are affected by the strikes, and the CGT union wants to push through a ten percent wage increase at the refineries of the energy group Total. Total should hold talks with all unions on Wednesday.
Opposition hopes for general strike
“The effects of the labor dispute have become unbearable for too many French people,” said the government spokesman. People could no longer drive to work, do the shopping or take their children to school. The service obligation of employees should enable the filling of tankers in the refineries. If deliveries to the gas stations get going again, the situation could normalize within a few days. The majority of the trade unions involved reject the strike, which is why the state is intervening.
In the meantime, the opposition has already tried to use the tense situation to weaken Macron, who is currently getting into difficult waters domestically after losing the absolute majority. “I hope that will be the spark that will trigger a general strike,” Green MP Sandrine Rousseau told France Info on Wednesday. For next Sunday, a “march against expensive life and doing nothing in the climate crisis” directed against Macron’s government will be mobilized, to which the Left Party, Socialists and Greens have called.
As the newspaper “Le Figaro” wrote on Wednesday, the refinery strike harbors the potential feared by the Élysée Palace to develop into a wave of unrest similar to the yellow vest protests of 2018/2019. At that time, the increase in taxes on fuel was the trigger for extensive social protests.
