Why Euro 2016 will be about more than football
French authorities have urged unions to put an end to their strike action, which is threatening to overshadow the European football championship that starts on Friday.
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Protests over controversial labour reforms have disrupted travel, created fuel shortages, and is now causing rubbish to pile up on the streets, as many bin collectors also walk out. Social unrest, coupled with renewed terrorism fears has deflected attention away from the pitch.
"The image of France is at stake", Sports minister Patrick Kanner said on Thursday, as thousands of soccer fans and 24 international teams flocked to the French capital for the European football championship.
"Euro 2016 can be an opportunity for us to unite behind our national team," he was quoted as saying in French daily Direct Matin, while urging unions not to "spoil the party atmosphere."
The role of sport in bridging social divides is uncontested. France's national team is a prime example. Its players, often referred to as 'black, blanc, beur' -Black, White, Arab, are held up as a symbol of multiculturalism, and a vision of the French nation, in which the children of immigrants from France’s former colonies share a common civic destiny.
But four months into strike action, and more protests on the way, it seems unlikely that the beautiful game will be able to unite the country once again.
Unions remain defiant that controversial reforms to the labour code, making it easier to hire and fire workers, should be scrapped.
"It's not so much the demonstrations which are being imposed on the Euro, but rather the other way round," Virginie Gensel, the national secretary of the left-leaning CGT union told RFI.
"During the tournament, we want to have and are already preparing information sessions, and meeting groups with the French people, particularly football fans, but also foreign fans, to explain to them that what is happening in France is not just a French phenomenon, but concerns them as well."
Yet the timing couldn't be worse.
"I think the unions who go on strike at the moment of the Euro are really putting shame on France," Erik Bielderman, an editor at Sports newspaper L'Equipe, told RFI.
"Whatever their vision about protesting against some laws and the will of the government to change the working code, when you are supposed to welcome 8 million European visitors, when you are under the scrutiny of 24 countries, where you have to make France proud and make the publicity of a welcoming country, you instead destroy it, just spit on it, so I am really upset, really ashamed."
On Thursday, protesters blocked roads into France's famous wholesale food market Rungis for several hours, while rail strikes entered their ninth consecutive day.
Leaving aside the ongoing demonstrations including a strike by French pilots that is due to begin on Saturday the championships have emerged as a crucial test for the country to prove that it can secure itself against further terrorist attacks.
Experts argue that zero risk is impossible.
"In France as elsewhere, in the UK, in Germany, in the US, all the Western countries are at risk, but it's a matter of truth that France is the prime target of the Islamic State," counter-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguière told RFI.
Nerves were rattled earlier this week when a suspected far-right extremist Frenchman, was arrested in Ukraine with an arsenal of weapons and explosives.
It's believed he was allegedly planning "15 terrorist strikes" before and during the tournament.
Amidst security fears, protests, piles of rubbish - as bin collectors now also down their tools- what's left of the beautiful game?
Very little says Philippe Moreau Chevrolet, a communication specialist: "Everyone wants to stick to their positions and not appear weak or lose ground in the polls," he told RFI, as the stand-off between the government and the unions rumbles on.
Presidential elections are coming up next year, and constitute, according to Chevrolet, another factor of diversion.
"It's a loser's game. The French public are turning against the unions, and they are also turning against the government. They are fed up and want all this to stop."
Whether or not this fatigue will have any bearing on the French team when they take on Romania in their opening match on Friday is anyone's guess, but if the pre-Euro 2016 period is anything to go by, the tournament looks likely to be more about politics and less about football.
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