Fuel gap set to hit holiday spots
Source: Agencies |
October 25, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
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A QUARTER of French petrol stations were short on fuel yesterday as refinery strikes over pension reform continued to drain supply, and one official said several holiday spots were likely to be particularly hard-hit.
Raymond Soubie, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, told Europe 1 radio the regions of Brittany, Loire-Atlantic and Auvergne in the northwest and center would be among the worst affected by the shortages, which come at the start of a 12-day school holiday.
Several football matches in the north over the weekend had to be postponed.
The main fuel depot and refinery in the northwest, in Donges, was blocked, hindering deliveries to the entire region.
Soubie said complicated logistics hindered improving the distribution situation.
"It is a very difficult logistical problem," he said. "The situation is not going to get worse, and it will improve very gradually."
Sarkozy scored a victory on Friday by getting his bill to make people work two more years for their pensions through the Senate, but striking refinery workers are putting a strain on businesses and daily life and show no sign of backing down.
Sarkozy sent in police last week to break up blockades at fuel depots and the government battled to get diesel and petrol out to motorway service stations before a flood of families hit the road this weekend.
Two-thirds of French people oppose the pension law and have put up some of the fiercest resistance in Europe to austerity measures aimed at reining in huge deficits.
An Ifop opinion poll published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche yesterday showed Sarkozy's popularity slid three points from last month to 29 percent.
When the refinery strikes started nearly two weeks ago France had more than three months' worth of strategic reserves held in industry and government depots, but industry supplies have already been tapped into.
Fuel depots were already depleted because of a separate strike by dockers at France's biggest oil port at Marseille.
Workers at two refineries have voted to stay on strike this week, and workers at the other plants will meet in the days ahead to decide their course of action, CGT union official Charles Foulard at Total said yesterday.
"The movement continues," Foulard told Reuters. "Everything will be debated among the workers and will depend on the mobilisation of the workers."
The law to raise the minimum and full retirement ages by two years to 62 and 67 respectively is set to be adopted by the middle of next week, but unions vow to fight on with nationwide strikes and marches on Thursday and on November 6.
Raymond Soubie, an adviser to President Nicolas Sarkozy, told Europe 1 radio the regions of Brittany, Loire-Atlantic and Auvergne in the northwest and center would be among the worst affected by the shortages, which come at the start of a 12-day school holiday.
Several football matches in the north over the weekend had to be postponed.
The main fuel depot and refinery in the northwest, in Donges, was blocked, hindering deliveries to the entire region.
Soubie said complicated logistics hindered improving the distribution situation.
"It is a very difficult logistical problem," he said. "The situation is not going to get worse, and it will improve very gradually."
Sarkozy scored a victory on Friday by getting his bill to make people work two more years for their pensions through the Senate, but striking refinery workers are putting a strain on businesses and daily life and show no sign of backing down.
Sarkozy sent in police last week to break up blockades at fuel depots and the government battled to get diesel and petrol out to motorway service stations before a flood of families hit the road this weekend.
Two-thirds of French people oppose the pension law and have put up some of the fiercest resistance in Europe to austerity measures aimed at reining in huge deficits.
An Ifop opinion poll published in the weekly Journal du Dimanche yesterday showed Sarkozy's popularity slid three points from last month to 29 percent.
When the refinery strikes started nearly two weeks ago France had more than three months' worth of strategic reserves held in industry and government depots, but industry supplies have already been tapped into.
Fuel depots were already depleted because of a separate strike by dockers at France's biggest oil port at Marseille.
Workers at two refineries have voted to stay on strike this week, and workers at the other plants will meet in the days ahead to decide their course of action, CGT union official Charles Foulard at Total said yesterday.
"The movement continues," Foulard told Reuters. "Everything will be debated among the workers and will depend on the mobilisation of the workers."
The law to raise the minimum and full retirement ages by two years to 62 and 67 respectively is set to be adopted by the middle of next week, but unions vow to fight on with nationwide strikes and marches on Thursday and on November 6.
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