French diplomats go on strike

French Foreign Ministry staff – diplomats included – staged an unprecedented strike today in protest at planned budget cuts.

The action by the world’s second largest diplomatic corps shut down some embassies and consulates.

More than 90% of staff in Paris and at posts around the world took part in the one-day strike, according to the leading union at the ministry.

From Madagascar to Rome, Washington and beyond, embassy personnel walked off the job.

France’s Foreign Ministry has 9,409 employees – more than 5,000 of them overseas, making it the second largest diplomatic corps in the world, after the United States.

“After years and years of economising that have hit this ministry they are asking us to go further – that is to no longer have the means to do our job,” said Louis Dominici, head of a group of unions at the ministry.