French trade unions staged another massive day of protests on Saturday to defend their right to retire at 60, but fears of fuel shortages crippling Paris airports eased as supplies resumed.
Although government estimates of the turnout at the rallies suggested the movement might be losing steam, unions warned that strikes are spreading to more businesses and that a new nationwide protest would be held tomorrow.
Tension has been building since record demonstrations earlier this week with strikes in refineries cutting off fuel supplies to Paris airports and with high school students joining older workers to condemn pension reform moves.
However, fears that planes would be grounded at France’s main hub Charles de Gaulle eased as pipelines resumed supplies.
“The fuel supply of the Paris airports resumed Saturday afternoon, which keeps the threat of a shortage away from Roissy-Charles de Gaulle,” said the head of the French civil aviation authority, Patrick Gandil.
Nantes in western France became the first airport in the country to cancel flights because of shortages, Gandil said, although a Nantes airport official said there had been no cancelations because of fuel shortages.
According to the interior ministry, 825,000 people took to the streets of towns and cities across the country on Saturday, the lowest official total since protests against French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan began last month.
Unions estimated the turnout at “around 3 million,” arguing that the numbers were around the same as a previous protest on a Saturday two weeks earlier, and labor leaders insisted the campaign would go on.
“The movement is taking root and growing in terms of the number of companies hit by various forms of strike as in the number of employees taking part in the action,” the CGT union said in a statement.
French Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Public Service Eric Woerth, insisted, however, that there had been a “significant drop-off” in the number of people taking part from the 1.2 million the government said had marched on Tuesday last week.
Labor wants to force Sarkozy into backing down on his plan to raise the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, which is in the final days of its journey through a parliament in which the right-wing leader enjoys a comfortable majority.
Strikes have shut down 10 out of France’s 12 oil refineries, despite riot police being dispatched to fuel depots to protect deliveries amid panic buying.
The government has given oil companies permission to tap into their own emergency stocks, but has resisted calls to use government-controlled strategic reserves.
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