“There will be no strike” during the Paris Olympic Games.
This is what Patrice Vergriete, Minister for Transport, wants to believe.
While threats of strikes are looming at the SNCF and the RATP during the Olympics this summer, the minister affirmed on France Inter this Wednesday morning that he was "absolutely not" worried.
.@P_Vergriete: "I do not believe for a single moment that workers, employees, unions, will endanger the image of France in the eyes of the whole world" by striking during the #JO2024 #le710inter pic.twitter. com/N2SSNLoFKu
— France Inter (@franceinter) February 28, 2024
“I do not believe for a single moment that the workers, the employees, the unions will endanger the image of France or the image of their company in the eyes of the whole world,” he said, because According to him, this is “not at all in the working culture, we are attached to the image of our company and our country when we are a worker or a trade unionist”.
No reform of the right to strike “for the moment”
Patrice Vergriete also estimated that there is "no need to reform the right to strike today", at least "for the moment", distinguishing himself from the speeches of the right and the center, which filed , in the wake of an SNCF strike in mid-February in the middle of the winter holidays, a new bill to grant the government an annual capital of 60 days of strike ban.
“If there were periods, we would have to choose them and what do we prioritize?
Holidays ?
Or the daily life of the French?
I prefer to appeal to the responsibility” of management and the unions, declared the minister, adding that he would “soon” meet the unions “including the rail”.
His speech, however, joined that of the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher (LR) since the minister also affirmed that the strike should be “the last resort” and not “the beginning of the negotiation”.
VIDEO.
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Annoyance was felt in mid-February in the Macronist ranks, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal declaring that the strike was “a right” but “also that working is a duty”.
“The question is not the right to strike, but to know to what extent we do not abuse it,” also estimated the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu.
A citizens’ convention on mobility
Asked about the budget cuts announced last week by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, with two billion taken from the "ecology, sustainable development and mobility" programs, Patrice Vergriete affirmed that his budget remained "up by one billion » euros.
“Certainly, not 1.3 billion, but 1 billion (…) respecting budgetary balances does not prevent us from being able to define our priorities and transport is one of them,” added the former mayor of Dunkirk, known for having established free buses in his city.
Finally, the minister announced that he wanted a citizens' convention on mobility to “go into detail” on the evolution of motorways or the development of the train, for example.