Analysis: A very French blockade

"Station closed" - union power leads to pedal power

By our correspondent in Paris

This must go down as one the worst-handled series of disputes in the history of French industrial relations.

And in a country where social unrest comes around as regularly as the autumn windfalls - and usually at the same time, just after the summer break - that is saying something.

Farmers have joined the fuel blockade

How did the government of socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin fail to see last week that if he handed out goodies by the plateful to disgruntled fishermen and thus legitimised their blockade of the channel ports, he would soon be forced to do exactly the same for a host of other interest groups?

And so it has turned out. The blockade of the ports has turned into the blockade of the oil depots.

France's decrepit haulage industry is on the war-path for the umpteenth time in the last five years, and once again ordinary people - locals and foreigners - are being held to ransom as petrol stocks dry up, and police have to enforce rationing.

Of course, the outcome of this round of the great oil crisis is as predictable as the last. The government has already offered one billion francs worth of tax-cuts to buy off the truckers, which - surprise, surprise - has already been rejected by the main federation.

But sooner or later a deal will come and then, like some monstrous relay-race, another group will take up the baton.

Logical conclusion

The farmers we know about, but then there are the taxi-drivers, ambulance-drivers, tourist-bus operators, bargees: all have staged or promised protests.

After all, anyone can claim to be affected by the world's oil price rise -- even private citizens who'll have to stump up for bigger heating bills in the winter.

In the public eye: French Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot

In fact, the logical conclusion of the process has already been reached in a surreal way in Normandy, where the people of Montebourg decided they had had enough of the fuel price too and sealed off the entire village.

It is true that the unrest is now spreading to other parts of Europe.

Spanish consumer groups have called for a boycott of the main oil company Repsol, and Belgian lorry-drivers are planning a demonstration for Sunday.

The European Commission says the price rise is a Europe-wide concern and wants concerted EU pressure on oil producers to up production and lower the price.

Only in France

But it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that it is only in France, where the right to take to the streets is inalienable, that matters can descend into such chaos. The government is left looking feeble.

Former Prime Minister Raymond Barre had it right when he said the protests gave a lamentable image of his country.

"Maybe there's some justice in the complaints. But from there, to demonstrate constantly, blockading the country -- it gives the impression of a people who care only about their particular concerns, who take to the streets whenever they are affected, and who've lost all view of the overall interests of the nation."