Petrol shortages and traffic slowdowns escalate in France ahead of another strike

French lorry drivers blocked roads near Paris and several provincial cities on Monday, intensifying action against the government’s reform of the country's pension system. More than 10 per cent of French petrol stations are dry.

Reuters/Pascal Rossignol

Truckers staged go-slows - operations escargot - and blocked supply depots as part of demonstrations against plans to raise the minimum retirement age to 62.

Trade unions have called for another general strike for Tuesday.

The lorry drivers’ action coincides with continued blockages at fuel depots and minor clashes between riot police and young people in a Paris suburb.

Masked youths set a car on fire, smashed bus stops and threw projectiles on Monday outside the Joliot-Curie school near in Nanterre. This after students joined protests last week.

Police reacted with tear gas at the school, which is one of 261 in France that officials said were affected by protests against the government’s reforms.

Monday afternoon, RFI observed a group of about 200 high school students blocking traffic at city hall. Holding banners calling themselves the "mouvement de lycee" (high-school movement), they sat and stood on Rue de Rivoli, trying to stop motorists from going through.

Eleven out of France’s 12 oil refineries are disrupted by strike action on Monday and many fuel depots have been blocked by picketing.

About 1,500 petrol stations had run out of fuel on Monday, according to the industry association. That represents around 12 per cent of French petrol forecourts.

In an effort to calm fears, on Sunday French Prime Minister François Fillon said that the government would take any “necessary decisions” to make sure that France’s fuel supplies were not disrupted.

Consumers have reacted, and last week there was a 50 per cent spike in sales.

“I’ve been to four petrol stations. They were open, but there was no petrol. I don’t know what to do anymore,” one motorist in Clichy-la-Garenne, near Paris, told RFI on Monday morning.

“Soon I will run out and will have to go around with a jerry-can,” he added. “On television they tell us that there’s no shortage, but there is a shortage.”

Several mass strikes and demonstrations are planned for Tuesday. Air travel could be affected Tuesday, and the CGT trade union at Air France, the company’s largest union, have called for a strike at French airports for Wednesday.