The union battle for control of France

The Telegraph reports:

Yet there is evidence that France is, for the first time in two decades, heading for a perfect storm of social unrest fuelled by a Leftist union leader apparently bent on rekindling class warfare and a president so unpopular he cannot afford to climb down without losing his final fig leaf of credibility before elections next year.

In the past few days, the CGT has gone further than any union since 1995 to bring France to a total standstill. Between a third and half of the country’s petrol pumps are running dry, output from nuclear power stations has been cut raising the prospect of electricity shortages; and perhaps even more ominously, a series of “unlimited” public transport strikes are to begin next week just days before the Euro 2016 football tournament kicks off.

Hollande is toast if he gives in. Mind you he is toast also if he doesn’t.

Meanwhile, hotel operators warned that the union’s “scorched earth tactics” have seen occupancy rates fall by 50 per cent to their lowest since the immediate aftermath of the November Paris terror attacks, as French and foreign tourists fear travel chaos or worse.

Trying to bankrupt the country.

When France’s national newspapers refused to publish a tract on his position for free this week, the CGT arm of the printers’ union blocked their publication, letting just one daily through: l’Humanité, the Communist organ. Even Laurent Joffrin, editor of the left-wing Libération, criticised the move as “shameful and stupid”.

And will destory any media who don’t print their propoganda for them.

As polls currently stand, the winners are likely to be the centre-Right, whose candidates for presidential primaries are falling over themselves with ambitious liberal reform proposals.

If, however, the blockages and unrest persist, that could play into the hands of the far-Right Front National, whose leader Marine Le Pen has called for more workers’ rights on top of an anti-immigration line. The FN has discreetly backed the protests.

Le Pen has a solid 30% support in the polls, around 10% ahead of the next candidate. She is almost certain to make the 2nd round, between the two top polling candidates.

Unlikely she would win the second round, but not impossible.