Hollande promises action to ensure a smooth Euro 2016
Print Edition
FRANCE vowed drastic measures to prevent strikes disrupting the smooth running of Euro 2016. Europe’s showcase football championship kicked off last night, also overshadowed by terror fears.
Organizers said weeks of industrial action, often accompanied by violent protests, had spoiled the party.
“The image that is being given is not the one we wanted,” chief organiser Jacques Lambert said just hours before hosts France faced Romania at the Stade de France in Paris.
The football extravaganza comes after months of seemingly endless woes for the country, which has been plagued by terror attacks, floods, political turmoil and strikes.
President Francois Hollande said he would take “all necessary measures” to ensure the championship goes off without a hitch.
“I will be paying close attention... and if decisions need to be made, they will be made,” he said.
“Public services will be provided ... The whole of Europe will be watching.”
Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said striking rail workers could be ordered back to work if that was necessary to get fans to stadiums.
Paris and Marseille, meanwhile, scrambled to clear stinking piles of rubbish from the streets after workers blockaded incineration plants and some refuse workers downed tools.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo had vowed to clear all the rubbish as fans began to arrive for the monthlong tournament. “It is already being collected,” Hidalgo told French TV yesterday.
The country is also on edge over the prospect of another terror attack, with the championship coming just seven months after Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in Paris. The Stade de France was where three jihadists blew themselves up at the start of the November 13 carnage, which also targeted a concert hall and cafes and restaurants.
France remains a top target for the Islamic State group and up to 90,000 police and private security guards are on duty to protect players and spectators.
In another headache for organizers, Air France pilots had called for a four-day strike from today, though Frederic Gagey, the airline’s chief has promised that more than 80 percent of flights will operate today.
While striking workers have varying demands, they are united in protest against labor reforms which the government forced through parliament without a vote, locking them in a power struggle with unions.
Despite the potential negative impact of the strikes on the tournament, the government is refusing to budge on a law it says will help reduce unemployment.
“Let us be clear, the government has no intention of withdrawing this law, or of unravelling it,” Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri told reporters.
She said she would meet powerful union leader Philippe Martinez, who is spearheading the industrial action, “in a minute if it would allow us to remove the blockages in this country.”
Despite the gloomy atmosphere, there is hope that the tournament will provide a welcome respite from the nation’s woes.
An editorial in Le Parisien said the opening match would provide “a breath of fresh air in a France which has struggled to breathe for months.
“No, a football match will not erase days of strikes and weeks of tensions. But the prospect of a delightful little digression is enough to leave many of us smiling.”
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