While the first vacation departures will begin on Friday, the strike continues on Monday in the refineries and depots of TotalEnergies. The threats of new requisitions at the start of a high-risk week marked by an interprofessional movement on Tuesday have therefore not really changed the situation at the pump for the moment.
The fuel shortage did not seem to be resolving on Sunday, the figures released in the evening showing a worsening of the situation for service stations: 30.1% were considered to be in difficulty against 27.3% the day before, due to fewer deliveries. on weekends, according to the government.
Very tense situation in Ile-de-France
In the Lille region, 23.4% of stations lacked at least one of their products against 22% on Saturday. This rate was much higher and on the rise in Ile-de-France (41.6% against 39.9%) and in Centre-Val-de-Loire (42.8% against 36.4%). The situation was also tense in Bourgogne Franche-Comté and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Difficulties in getting to work, concern in rural areas in the midst of harvest and sowing, fear of disruptions in holiday departures and cancellations: the consequences on many sectors of activity are being felt. Faced with this blockage after nearly three weeks of strike, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne brandished the threat of new “requisitions” of employees in the event of “very tense situations”.
Medef wants requisitions
On the set of the 8 p.m. television news on TF1, she raised her voice by asking the striking employees of TotalEnergies “to respect the majority agreement and not to block the country with all the difficulties that this creates”. Before her, it was Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Accounts, who had stepped up to the plate in the morning, judging “unacceptable that there is the continuation of blockages”.
The president of Medef, Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, who was interviewed on Radio J, for his part called for requisitions, considering that “the 150 people from the refineries are taking the French hostages”. According to the boss of bosses, an additional week of shortage, “it really risks having an impact on the economy”.
Extended pump rebate
Currently, the strikes concern three refineries (out of seven) and five large depots (out of approximately 200) and are more or less followed according to the sites of TotalEnergies, according to the government. These are those of Normandy (refinery and depot), Donges (refinery and depot), La Mède (biorefinery and depot), Flandres (depot) and Feyzin (depot, the refinery being shut down for technical reasons). Only one TotalEnergies depot, that of Flanders near Dunkirk, was the subject of a requisition launched Thursday by the government.
In addition, while the strike drastically increased prices at the pump, the Prime Minister announced the extension of the 30 cents rebate, assuring that TotalEnergies would “also” extend its 20 cents rebate. State-funded aid was to drop to 10 cents from November 1.