Tax protests block access to oil depots in France

FRENCH protesters angered by higher fuel taxes blocked access to three oil depots yesterday, including two run by Total, the company said, as protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies entered a third day.

Thousands of people took part in demonstrations on motorways across France over the weekend, sparking major logjams and several accidents, including a fatality at one road blockade, reported Reuters.

However, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, standing firm against a wave of grassroots protests, said that fuel tax hikes would remain in place despite nationwide agitation.

“The course we set is good and we will keep it,” Philippe said in an interview on TV station France-2. “It’s not when the wind blows that you change course.”

Nearly 300 000 protesters paralysed traffic at more than 2 000 strategic sites around France on Saturday, in a bid to force the government to lower taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline. Other issues, like buying power, melted into the main demand as the demonstrations unfolded.

A protester was struck and killed on Saturday when a driver panicked facing a roadblock in the eastern Savoie region. French press reports said on Sunday the driver was charged with manslaughter and released.

At the last count, at least 409 people had been injured – 14 seriously, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on RTL radio.

Holdouts refusing to end the protests continued to slow traffic at the weekend. Blockades were counted at 150 scattered locations on Sunday, Castaner told RTL radio. Protesters were notably in Rennes, in western France, Avignon, in the south, and Nancy in the east, where police moved in to clear them.

The situation throughout the night was “agitated”, Castaner said, with “aggressions, fights and knife-slashing” taking place, including among the protesters.

Overall 157 people were detained for questioning – double the number reported on Saturday night.