Communication clumsiness, discomfort towards totalnergies and lack of solidarity between ministers: the strike movement in refineries revealed the flaws of the executive.
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was to be a program devoted to international crises, war in Ukraine, energy and climate. The ace. It took barely thirty minutes of maintenance on France 2, Tuesday October 12, so that Emmanuel Macron was made up by the fuel crisis in France. “This has nothing to do with the war. There were wage debates, and they have delayed,” annoyed the head of state by calling on “responsibility” the private actors. “We always tend to put the monkey on the shoulder of the government. We cannot replace everyone,” he castigated, referring back to back the direction of Totalenergies who, he said , “finally” open negotiations, and the CGT, which must “allow the country to function”.
denouncing “a spirit of ease” which would consist in accusing the executive power, the President of the Republic judges that “everyone must be in their place and take all their responsibilities”. The government would therefore not have, he thinks, poorly anticipated the shortages that have been penalizing the French who have unable to use their vehicles for more than ten days. “No no and no, it’s too easy! (…) Social dialogue we believe in it,” insisted Emmanuel Macron, who had bet on the voluntary redistribution of margins by petroleum groups, rather than a taxation of their profits exceptional due to war in Ukraine.
In these times of uncertainty, the head of state calls on the French “to tighten their elbows” but struggles to sketch a solution to get out of the dead end. The fuel crisis has trapped the government. After two weeks of tensions, six of the seven refineries were on strike on Wednesday evening. The movement now extends to the maintenance of five nuclear reactors and public transport. Panic is felt. This crisis has turned into a gigantic part of Ball-Trap between ministers, where everyone takes the fault by trying to avoid bullets.
It all starts on September 27. The CGT announces a strike in Totalenergies refineries to obtain wage increases. The next day, that of Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), the most important in France, began its arrest. But the management of the petroleum group wants to be reassuring: there will be no supply of supply, it promises, thanks to stocks allowing to hold between twenty days and a month. On the same day, the company announces to pay its shareholders 2.6 billion euros in exceptional dividends, without arousing any reaction from the executive.
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