France was braced for mass strikes on Tuesday as taxi drivers, air traffic controllers, civil servants and teachers demanded more purchasing power, job creation and an end to disruptive competition to traditional industries, reports the Financial Times.
Hundreds of taxi drivers took to the streets of Paris, burning car tyres and blocking routes to the capital’s principal airports in a protest that was expected to spread chaos throughout the capital.
A protest by air traffic controllers prompted France’s Civil Aviation Authority to ask airlines to cancel 20 per cent of their flights in France. BFM TV reported that low-cost airline EasyJet had already cancelled at least 35 flights either arriving or taking off from France. It said that Air France had also cancelled some of its short- and medium-haul flights.
Meanwhile, many of the country’s 5.6m civil servants were expected to stage dozens of strikes and demonstrations around France in protest at what they claim has been a consistent erosion of jobs and pay in recent years.
According to the CGT union, one of the country’s largest, civil servants have lost between 8 per cent and 10 per cent of their purchasing power since 2010. It also says that some 150,000 jobs have been eliminated since 2007.
The strikes stand to add further problems to President François Hollande and his Socialist government as the French head of state battles with stubbornly low economic growth and record-high unemployment. Mr Hollande has promised not to run for re-election in 2017 if he does not manage to reverse the upward trend in unemployment in recent years.
Against the challenging economic environment, the far-right National Front party has made unprecedented gains in recent local elections, and has established itself as a force to be reckoned with in the run-up to the 2017 presidential contest.