Posted on 10/18/2010 2:45:20 PM PDT by FromLori
As the ongoing strikes in France against austerity continue, and see increasingly more participation, the latest development is all too familiar to all those who travelled through Athens in the summer: huge lines for gas. About 1,000 gas stations across France have run out of fuel because strikers had blocked access to oil refineries and depots, Alexandre de Benoist, a Union of Independent Oil Importers official, told CNN on Monday. It gets worse: per the AP, the head of France's petroleum industry body said fuel reserves were "enough to keep us going for a few weeks." Jean-Louis Schilansky, president of the Petrol Industries Association, warned however that if the strikers continue to block fuel depots and if the nation's truckers join the movement, "then we will have a very big problem." Sure enough, truckers did join the fray on Monday, staging organized slowdowns aimed at snarling highway traffic. French TV showed images of cars and trucks on a "Snail Operation," driving at a snail's pace along the main highway between Paris and the northern city of Lille, with red union flags waving out the windows. Will Europe's little experiment with Austerity be doomed, as the continent realizes that there is no solution to the imminent insolvency of the PIIGS and soon everyone else, and should just enjoy it last months and days of the existing status quo?
More from CNN on why this is not going to end any time soon:
French workers began their latest round of strikes a week ago, protesting against government plans to raise the retirement age and institute other pension reforms. The government, which contends that France can no longer afford the earlier retirement payments, has shown no sign of backing down. Analysts say pension reform will likely be a defining moment in the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Blasting Sarkozy during a CNN interview Saturday, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe accused the French president of "arrogance." But Sarkozy insists the changes are needed because rising life expectancy increases the financial burden on the pension system.
A government crisis coordination task force met for the first time Monday to discuss the fuel situation, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior said. The group, to be led by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeaux, will aim to "coordinate the action of different state departments to ensure a continuous fuel supply."
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday night he would "not let the French economy be choked by a blockade of fuel.
"There will not be a shortage because we are going to make the necessary decisions ... to ensure that this country is not blocked," he said on TF1 television. Well that should surely be welcome relief to all those who are waiting to gas up for hours.
Also, fuel may end up being the least of the country's concerns:
Meanwhile, French youth who have rallied to the cause burned tires and set up blockades Monday outside some high schools in Paris and nearby suburbs.
Students from Lycee Joliot Curie in the Paris suburb of Nanterre tried to blockade their school, with about 100 of them facing off against police. Kids...
Idiots who think money comes from thin air
Gallic ping.
These demonstartions can now be called vandalism. Its a shame, there are some good people in France who have tolerated the movement to socialism for too long. those good people are now going to be consumed by that socialism.
I hope that every American is watching this, because when we take back our country and try to fix it, we will face a lot of the same stuff. We need to be ready for it and decide not to back down when the time comes.
RFI-
http://www.english.rfi.fr/france/20101018-students-across-france-clash-police-over-pension-reforms
Students across France staged sit-ins and clashed with police Monday as protests against the government’s pension reforms continue. In Paris, students marched down the Champs Elysées and blocked traffic in the centre of town. Elsewhere, police used teargas to disperse protesters
The protest actions called by various student unions, brought groups of between 200 and 1,500 students to the streets, most peacefully marching or stopping traffic, though there were reports of cars and property being destroyed.
The Interior Ministry said 196 rioters were detained by mid-day, and four police officers were injured in clashes with protesters.
The Education Ministry said 261 high schools were disrupted, while the UNL student union said 850 were involved, and 550 were shut down.
In Paris, Monday afternoon RFI observed some 200 students blocking Rue de Rivoli, a main thoroughfare of the capital. They sat on the street near city hall in the street, stopping traffic, holding signs calling themselves the Mouvement de Lycée, or High school movement.
Some 300 to 400 students from the Paris suburbs convened at Etoile, according to the AFP news agency. They tried to go down the Champs Elysées to block traffic, but were stopped by police on the sidewalk, without incident.
Monday morning, police clashed with students in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. Cars were burned and bus stops and phone booths in the area were destroyed by stones by students at the police, who used teargas to get the situation under control by the afternoon.
In Lagny-sur-Marne, another suburb, a police officer was injured by stones thrown by protesters in front of a high school, who also launched Molotov cocktails, according to a police source.
In eastern France, police reportedly broke up a protest of 400 high school students in Mulhouse, arresting two, aged 15 and 16 years old. Four were detained after property was damaged in Thionville and Forbach, where about 500 high school students were protesting.
In Nancy and Metz, 1,000 and 1,500 students took to the streets without incident.
In Lyon, about 1,000 high school students took to the streets. Two students, both 18-years-old, were sentenced to three months in prison after one damaged an advertising sign when she threw a rock at it, and the other threw a bag of dead leaves on a police officer.
Kind of like the idiots in America who watch TV.
At least this should reduce their carbon footprint.
It will be interesting how many rank and file. humm, that is an interesting way to discribe Union members.
Rank: Union leadership.
File: Those that follow in a line.
Retype: It will be intersting to see how many Union File members will get behind the Thugs to destroy property and beat up on people.
Those High School kids don’t care about the retirement age. They just like to walk out and break stuff probably. :p
What is this, students and youth hit the hardest?
What do they know about fiscal policy?
With perseverance, luck and ammo we should be able to avoid a similar fate.
Three months in prison for tossing a bag of dead leaves? LOL!
stuid yutes will learn to not throw bags of leaves
Time to call out the army to restore order.
lol true I would totally laugh at the French for their socialist ways, etc. but I guess I do feel for some of them and they have been better then some of the countries about the terrorists I suppose it’s much like here you have the people who would sell their soul’s for free stuff and they had the other’s outnumbered.
It hasn’t even been a full 100 years since France lost a huge percentage of a generation of males in the trenches of WWI. I can understand their neurosis although it is frequently aggravating.
The Army is probably on strike too.
Do they have an army?
I doubt the students care, this is just like a holiday for them
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