- By Hugh Schofield & Paul Kirby
- In Paris & London
Image source, GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Tuesday’s strike was the sixth so far and unions are expected to all a seventh at the weekend
Fuel deliveries were blocked from all French refineries, according to union officials, as protesters again took to the streets over government plans to raise the pension age from 62 to 64.
“The strike has begun everywhere,” said Eric Sellini of the CGT union.
Tuesday marked the sixth day of strikes and protests since mid-January and trade unions said it would be the biggest yet.
Most train and metro services were cancelled and many schools closed.
Police estimated between 1.1 million and 1.4 million would taking part in the 260 protests highlighted by unions. The hardline CGT said as many as 700,000 demonstrators had turned out in Paris alone, although police figures were likely to be far lower.
With the government showing no sign of backing down on its pension plan, one union leader, Emmanuel Lépine, said last week that the aim of blocking fuel deliveries was to “bring the French economy to its knees”.
It was unclear how long the refinery blockades would last. There are eight refineries in mainland France and the CGT said strikers had blocked the exits to all of them, including those run by TotalEnergies and Esso-ExxonMobil.
Refineries around Le Havre in the north were among those blocked, French trade unions said
In the days ahead, there will be calls to extend the strikes to include power generation too.
So far, for all the noise and sporadic disruption, the campaign has caused little damage to the economy and the bill is proceeding through parliament.
Unions and the Left know time is running out before the reform becomes a reality – which is all the more reason for them to up the pressure now.
President Emmanuel Macron has called the reform “essential” because of deficits forecast for France’s pension system over the next 25 years, according to analysis by the independent Pensions Advisory Council.
As well as raising the pension age by two years, the government says workers would have to contribute for 43 years into France’s shared pension fund before earning a full pension.
Very few French workers have personal pensions linked to capital investments.
Neighbouring European economies have already raised the retirement age in recent years to reflect longer life expectancy. Italy, Germany and Spain have moved towards raising the official retirement age to 67, while in the UK it is currently 66.
The majority of French citizens back the continuing strikes, a poll by French survey group Elabe suggests.
According to the opinion poll, 56% of people support rolling strikes and 59% back the call to bring the country to a standstill.
Two-thirds of people support the protest movement against the government’s planned pension reforms in general, the poll indicates.
However, the number of protesters taking to the streets began to fall last month and union leaders now believe rolling strikes are their best hope of success.
“If the refineries are blocked, we could run out of petrol by the end of the week,” warned Thierry Cotillard, head of French supermarket group Les Mousquetaires.
Government spokesman Olivier Véran told France 2: “We don’t want French people to be, quote, unquote, ‘victims’ of a long-term blockade.”
Last week, he warned that the strikes could lead to an “ecological, agricultural and health catastrophe”.
