The French government yesterday threatened to forcibly break blockades of refineries and oil depots, which have been paralyzed by striking workers, as motorists continued to besiege gas stations in the hope of filling their tanks.
About one-third of France’s service stations were still low on, or out of, gas as strike action at energy giant TotalEnergies and other oil majors entered its third week and wage negotiations were stalling.
Government ministers and French President Emmanuel Macron have urged a negotiated resolution to the crisis, but government spokesman Olivier Veran threatened force to end the blockades.
Photo: Reuters
If strikers failed to re-establish access “immediately, we will step in, which means we could intervene to lift them,” Veran told broadcaster RTL.
The government could then “requisition qualified personnel” to ensure that the situation can go “back to normal,” he said.
Ongoing action by the CGT union at TotalEnergies SE installations was “excessive and out of line,” he said.
Photo: AP
The oil giant’s management “is right to demand that blockades be lifted before there can be negotiations,” Veran said.
Once access to refineries and depots was free, it would take about two weeks for the fuel situation to be back to normal, he said.
Stoppages continued at several refineries yesterday, including at France’s biggest near Le Havre in the north of the country after the CGT renewed its strike call and widened strike action to more than a dozen service stations along French motorways.
Unions at the French branch of Esso-ExxonMobil also renewed their strike call, rejecting a pay offer by management.
Motorists formed long lines outside petrol stations early yesterday. In central Paris, traffic slowed as waiting vehicles blocked roads, cycling paths and pedestrian crossings, hoping to be served before the pumps went dry.
Many used social media to exchange tips.
One post in a Facebook group on Monday said that a local BP service station would be resupplied “at 2:30pm.”
Another replied: “It’s now 2:37pm and they’re out of diesel.” Another user wrote: “What a mess.”
The fuel crisis comes at a time of high energy prices and inflation that are sapping French households’ purchasing power.
The opposition coalition Nupes has called for a “march against a high cost of living” in Paris and elsewhere on Sunday.
Over the weekend, several prominent French people came out in support of the initiative, including this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Annie Ernaux.
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