‘Angry' French taxi drivers plan to continue protests
Taxi drivers have mobilised for a week against an agreement that changes their pay for transporting patients
to and from hospitals, which represents a significant part of their income for some of them, particularly in rural areas.
The new pricing structure, due to come into force on October 1st, provides for a €13 charge to be covered by health insurance, followed by a kilometre rate. The government's aim is to limit the growth of healthcare transport costs.
On Tuesday,
meetings at the Ministry of Transport
and at the Ministry of Health, broke up with no solutions in sight.
Increased checks have been promised to limit the number of unlicenced drivers and the 'hailing' of private hire vehicles such as Uber (known as VTCs, or
Voitures de Transport avec Chauffeur
, in France), and technical meetings are planned, but union representatives denounced the lack of 'significant progress.'
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In Paris, the rallying point on Boulevard Raspail, where taxi drivers have been staging nightly protests for nine days, punctuated by firecrackers and smoke bombs, was 'partly empty last night,' according to Emmanuelle Cordier, president of the National Taxi Federation, but gatherings could pick up again from Wednesday.
'Most members have decided to continue the movement. They are very angry.' However, Cordier warned that future action will be 'more sporadic and less organised by the federations.'
In Pau, where Prime Minister François Bayrou is MP, around 200 taxis took part in a go-slow operation on Tuesday afternoon, taxis from several departments are expected to arrive, and farmers' union Coordination rurale has said it would to join the protest, Ms. Cordier said.
No action was planned on Wednesday around Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, in Parisian train stations, or around the Roland-Garros stadium, where the French Open tennis tournament is currently taking place.
Find the latest info on strike and protest-related disruption in our strike section
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Local France
2 days ago
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‘Angry' French taxi drivers plan to continue protests
Taxi drivers have mobilised for a week against an agreement that changes their pay for transporting patients to and from hospitals, which represents a significant part of their income for some of them, particularly in rural areas. The new pricing structure, due to come into force on October 1st, provides for a €13 charge to be covered by health insurance, followed by a kilometre rate. The government's aim is to limit the growth of healthcare transport costs. On Tuesday, meetings at the Ministry of Transport and at the Ministry of Health, broke up with no solutions in sight. Increased checks have been promised to limit the number of unlicenced drivers and the 'hailing' of private hire vehicles such as Uber (known as VTCs, or Voitures de Transport avec Chauffeur , in France), and technical meetings are planned, but union representatives denounced the lack of 'significant progress.' Advertisement In Paris, the rallying point on Boulevard Raspail, where taxi drivers have been staging nightly protests for nine days, punctuated by firecrackers and smoke bombs, was 'partly empty last night,' according to Emmanuelle Cordier, president of the National Taxi Federation, but gatherings could pick up again from Wednesday. 'Most members have decided to continue the movement. They are very angry.' However, Cordier warned that future action will be 'more sporadic and less organised by the federations.' In Pau, where Prime Minister François Bayrou is MP, around 200 taxis took part in a go-slow operation on Tuesday afternoon, taxis from several departments are expected to arrive, and farmers' union Coordination rurale has said it would to join the protest, Ms. Cordier said. No action was planned on Wednesday around Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, in Parisian train stations, or around the Roland-Garros stadium, where the French Open tennis tournament is currently taking place. Find the latest info on strike and protest-related disruption in our strike section HERE
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Jean Tiberi, the last right-wing mayor of Paris implicated in several scandals, has died
"Politics? Never!" When Xavière Tiberi, in the early 1960s, learned that her husband, then a young magistrate, had been spotted by a prominent Gaullist and was about to join his team, she was adamant. As the daughter of Corsican pastry chefs with left-wing commitments, politics had only ever shown her only its dark side: in Corte, her hometown, the Radical Socialists always lost. She had no intention of following that path. Yet the young couple eventually gave in. For the rest of his life, Jean Tiberi would do nothing but politics, always with his family. He was successful for a long time, before suffering a resounding final defeat. A former MP, who was briefly secretary of state and, above all, mayor of Paris, Tiberi died at the age of 90, the 5 th Arrondissement town hall said on Tuesday, May 27. The current mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, said that in his memory "the flags on all municipal buildings will be lowered to half-mast and books of condolence will be opened at City Hall [...] to allow Parisians to express their affection." With his death, Parisian political life has lost a figure who, although somewhat overshadowed by Jacques Chirac, whom he succeeded at City Hall, and Bertrand Delanoë, who took over after him, enjoyed an exceptionally long career. An "extraordinary career" for an "ordinary man," summed up academic Laurent Godmer in his book dedicated to Tiberi. Sentenced in 2013 for orchestrating a vast electoral fraud scheme, the former mayor will remain the embodiment of an era when the right controlled Paris thanks, in part, to clientelism and illegal methods.
