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One thousand truck drivers block motorways across France in diesel protest

Motorways and roads across the country are to be blocked on Saturday, with truck drivers protesting against tax increases on diesel fuel.

Published: 7 December 2019 12:52 CET
One thousand truck drivers block motorways across France in diesel protest
Photo: PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP

The majority of the blockades are to take place in the southeast of the country. The A8 motorway is expected to be affected, along with roads in the vicinity of Toulouse, Marseille and Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône).

The 2020 budget has forecast a two cent per litre increase on diesel fuel.

OTRE (Organization European Transport Transporters), the third largest trade union in the transportation sector, called on its members to block motorways on Saturday. The two largest trade union organisations – the FNTR and the TLF – do not support the blockade.

OTRE said in a statement that the cumulative effect of the tax would be forcing drivers to spend an additional 800 euros per year.

“Increasing the tax on fuel has no environmental value and represents an additional cost of 800 euros per vehicle per year for carriers” the statement read.

Strikes in a variety of industry sectors have taken place across the country this week, crippling mobility and shutting down businesses.

 

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PROTESTS

Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in the north-western French city of Rennes on Thursday in the latest rally against the rise of the far-right ahead of a national election this month.

Published: 21 June 2024 08:58 CEST
Clashes mar rally against far right in north-west France

The rally ended after dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and other projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas.

The regional prefecture said seven arrests were made among about 80 people who took positions in front of the march through the city centre.

The rally was called by unions opposed to Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party (RN), which is tipped to make major gains in France’s looming legislative elections. The first round of voting is on June 30.

“We express our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood division between them and us,” Fabrice Le Restif, regional head of the FO union, one of the organisers of the rally, told AFP.

Political tensions have been heightened by the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a Paris suburb, for which two 13-year-old boys have been charged. The RN has been among political parties to condemn the assault.

Several hundred people protested against anti-Semitism and ‘rape culture’ in Paris in the latest reaction.

Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racist group SOS Racisme, said it was “an anti-Semitic crime that chills our blood”.

Hundreds had already protested on Wednesday in Paris and Lyon amid widespread outrage over the assault.

The girl told police three boys aged between 12 and 13 approached her in a park near her home in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie on Saturday, police sources said.

She was dragged into a shed where the suspects beat and raped her, “while uttering death threats and anti-Semitic remarks”, one police source told AFP.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country outside Israel and the United States.

At Thursday’s protest, Arie Alimi, a lawyer known for tackling police brutality and vice-president of the French Human Rights League, said voters had to prevent the far-right from seizing power and “installing a racist, anti-Semitic and sexist policy”.

But he also said he was sad to hear, “anti-Semitic remarks from a part of those who say they are on the left”.

President Emmanuel Macron called the elections after the far-right thrashed his centrist alliance in European Union polls. The far-right and left-wing groups have accused each other of being anti-Semitic.

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