French Strikes Continue, Country Runs Out Of Gasoline
Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 18, 2010
As the ongoing strikes in France against austerity continue, and see increasingly more participation, the latest development is all too familiar to all those who travelled through Athens in the summer: huge lines for gas. About 1,000 gas stations across France have run out of fuel because strikers had blocked access to oil refineries and depots, Alexandre de Benoist, a Union of Independent Oil Importers official, told CNN on Monday. It gets worse: per the AP the head of France’s petroleum industry body said fuel reserves were “enough to keep us going for a few weeks.” Jean-Louis Schilansky, president of the Petrol Industries Association, warned however that if the strikers continue to block fuel depots and if the nation’s truckers join the movement, “then we will have a very big problem.” Sure enough, truckers did join the fray on Monday, staging organized slowdowns aimed at snarling highway traffic. French TV showed images of cars and trucks on a “Snail Operation,” driving at a snail’s pace along the main highway between Paris and the northern city of Lille, with red union flags waving out the windows. Will Europe’s little experiment with Austerity be doomed, as the continent realizes that there is no solution to the imminent insolvency of the PIIGS and soon everyone else, and should just enjoy it last months and days of the existing status quo?
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