Elisabeth Borne announced on Tuesday, October 11, during questions to the government, that she had asked the prefects to hire “the requisition of the personnel essential to the operation of the depots” of Esso-ExxonMobil.
>> Fuel shortage: follow the evolution of the situation live
And the left is sure, the announcement of these requisitions is the best fuel for mobilization. “Against the dry breakdown, we will refuel in the street”launches the deputy Insoumise Mathilde Panot.
FUELS: THE CHAOS IS YOU!
Tax superprofits, increase in wages… The employees demand by the struggle what you refused to them in Parliament. So stop your anti-striking propaganda!
On October 16, let’s fill up in the street!#fuelshortage pic.twitter.com/2h6fnV61PQ
— Mathilde Panot (@MathildePanot) October 11, 2022
March against the expensive life Sunday, October 16 at the call of the Insoumis, strike pickets, demonstrations in front of the prefectures… All means are good to respond, believes Fabien Roussel, the leader of the Communist Party. “We have a government that throws oil on the fire, which does not take employees seriously, which does not hear the simmering anger”he laments.
“The anger is there, palpable. If the government uses the requisition, it risks doing worse than better, it risks setting the country ablaze. It risks pushing other unions, other companies, other employees to just go on strike.”
Fabien Rousselnational secretary of the PCF, deputy for the North
Same tone or almost with Sandrine Rousseau, guest of franceinfo on Wednesday: “I hope this will be the spark that will trigger a general strike movement.” The elected EELV believes that for “radically change our public policies, we may have to block things a little bit.”
So, rather than forcing the strikers to return to work, can the announcement of these requisitions degenerate the movement? PS MP Arthur Delaporte accuses the government of playing arsonist firefighters. “Élisabeth Borne is playing with fire and especially with fuel. We thought that a solution through dialogue was possible. Now, if we have to requisition, it is only to support the firefighters, the military, the police, not break a strike which, in our opinion, is totally legitimate”supports Arthur Delaporte. “This crisis, we did not see it coming”, worries an adviser to the executive, who now hopes that public opinion will shift to his side.
“Requisition the CEO of Total”
“The CEO of Total is the only person in the country who should be requisitioned”, launched Hadrien Clouet, LFI-Nupes deputy for Haute-Garonne on France Bleu Occitanie.“The requisition is a deliberate violation of the right to strike”believes this elected official who called on all employees in France to support the strikers of the oil groups “to quickly win this showdown”.
For the deputy Insoumis “if there is a blockage, it is exclusively linked to the big oil companies. They have accumulated absolutely gigantic surplus profits during the crisis”. “This strike in the refineries is the only way we have today to recover” this money, he continues. The CEO of TotalEnergies, insists Hadrian Clouet, “Gave himself a 50% increase. He has accumulated 18 billion euros in surplus profits which are paid in full to the shareholders of the company”.