Protesting electricity workers cut off former premier

Electricity workers cut power to a former French prime minister today as part of a national day of action against government plans to partly privatise public utilities.

Power to the Bordeaux home of Alain Juppe, a prime minister in the 1990s who now heads President Jacques Chirac’s party, was shut off overnight.

The homes of other figures, including the head of France’s leading business federation, also suffered cuts. Protest marches also were planned in Paris and other cities.

The shows of anger came as parliament was to open debate on the conservative government’s plans to turn Electricite de France and Gaz de France, the public power and gas suppliers known by their acronyms EDF and GDF, into limited companies.

Energy workers backed by powerful trade unions and opposition parties reinvigorated by successes for the left this year in regional and European elections fear that opening the door to outside investment will ultimately put utilities in private hands, threatening their jobs and retirement benefits.

Despite the protests, government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said that the administration would not back down “under any circumstances.”