French fuel strike poses threat to Euro 2016 tournament

A collision between the French government and the country’s largest union federation threatens to paralyse the country two weeks before the Euro 2016 football championship.

One quarter of all French petrol stations were closed or running short of fuel after the militant CGT union federation blockaded refineries and depots in a dispute over reforms of employment law.

Officially, the government dismisses any possibility of disruption to the Euro 2016 football championship, which begins two weeks on Saturday. Unofficially, there are fears that the dispute could continue for many days and could become more entrenched and even violent.

The French government already faces a nerve-racking time during the month-long competition. More than 500,000 fans from the UK alone are expected to cross the Channel – half of them without tickets. France is still on high security alert following the November jihadist attacks, in Paris.

President François Hollande was forced to deny that France faced a “May revolution”, comparable to the students and workers’ revolt of May 1968. “May 1968 involved millions of people, students occupying universities, workers occupying factories,” he said. “This is just a traditional conflict.”

In other words: “Don’t worry. France is just being France.”