The government will involve the police in the event of "
real blockages
" of refineries, warned Wednesday the Minister Delegate for Transport Clément Beaune, while strikers are preventing shipments of fuel from oil installations.
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LIVE - Pensions: follow the new day of demonstration against the reform this Wednesday
"
If there were real blocking actions, typically in refineries, we would not let that happen,
" said Mr. Beaune on LCI, against a backdrop of mobilization of many professions, including refiners, against the pension reform. .
"
We must not brandish things before the situation exists but everyone knows, we showed it in October, particularly in the refineries, that we will not let the most essential economic life of the country be shutdown
,” insisted Mr. Beaune, referring to a previous social movement in the sector which had resulted in rampant shortages of fuel at the pump.
"
We are not in this situation, but we cannot imagine that our refineries will not work permanently, so we have all the legal tools to intervene, if necessary
", added the Minister, recalling that "
the strike is a right, the blockage is not one
", and that "
when there are blockages they are lifted, calmly, by interventions in particular of the police
".
Mr. Beaune was speaking shortly after the CGT-Chemistry claimed that fuel shipments were still blocked on Wednesday morning at the exit of refineries in France, in protest against the government's pension reform plan.
The refineries themselves continue to produce fuel: gasoline and diesel which will have to be stored on site until further notice, for lack of being able to leave.
When the on-site reserves are full, the refineries will have to stop, but this would require several days or even weeks of blockages.
In the meantime, the 10,000 stations in France are now full and can count on 200 fuel depots.
The management of TotalEnergies assured Tuesday that there was at this stage "
no lack of fuel
" in its stations, adding that "
stocks in depots and service stations are at a high level
".
