Sarkozy sends in riot police to reopen fuel depots

PRESIDENT Nicolas Sarkozy dispatched riot police yesterday to reopen fuel depots blocked by strikes against pension reform, as the pipeline to Paris airports was cut and all of France’s oil refineries shut down.

But even as officers forced open the barricades at some depots, strikers threw up new pickets at other fuel distribution centres across the country to fight against moves to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.

Students protested outside the prime minister’s offices and took to the streets in demonstrations across France, where more than 300 schools were hit by a fourth consecutive day of blockades or other actions, officials said.

Sarkozy on Thursday took the decision to send in the police to prevent fuel shortages amid reports of panic buying after workers at all of France’s 12 refineries walked out to join the broader protest.

“The goal of this reform is to guarantee to all French people that their retirement and that of their children can be paid for,” Sarkozy insisted at a ceremony to award medals to mothers of large families.

“As head of state my duty is to look to the future and not profit from the past,” he said, accusing his opponents of ignoring the reality of the growing shortfall in the social security fund, which fuels France’s budget deficit.

Unions and the Socialist opposition have vowed to defend the right to retire at 60 – accusing Sarkozy of making workers carry the burden for the failure of the financial sector – and have proposed increasing taxes on the rich.

“Pensions must be reformed, everyone agrees. To do that we need to discuss things, to negotiate, and we need fairness,” Socialist leader Martine Aubry said, accusing Sarkozy of provoking an unnecessary confrontation.

Fuel distributors said that several hundred filling stations had to shut on Friday because their supplies had run out.

The government has given oil companies permission to tap into their own emergency stocks, but has resisted calls to open the part of the French strategic fuel reserve controlled by a government committee.

Workers at a depot in Fos-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean did not resist when police intervened to reopen the facility, unions said.

Police also reopened depots at Bassens and Lespinasse in the southwest and Cournon d’Auvergne in the centre. But strikers threw up fresh pickets in at least five fuel depots on Friday, at Caen and Ouistreham in the north, Le Mans and Vern-sur-Seiche in the northwest, and La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast.