With the slogan “Let’s get out of NATO,” thousands of demonstrators have assembled in Paris to demand that France leave the US-led alliance.
The protesters also voiced their opposition to the rising expense of living.
They urged his administration to cease arming Ukraine and asked that President Emmanuel Macron step down.
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right movement, declared on Wednesday that if she were elected president, she would once more resign from the military command of the US-led alliance.
Anti-NATO attitudes have been growing among Europeans since the Ukrainian conflict started, which led to a serious energy crisis throughout Europe.
As a result of the ongoing worker strike at the refineries of the main French oil firms, gas stations throughout France have been closed.
Refinery strikes in France
Originally planned to last three days, the strike by France’s hard-left CGT union at ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies refineries is now on its thirteenth day.
It is still going on everywhere, a CGT representative said, adding that the corporation has not gotten in touch with them since the union demanded on Saturday that the company’s executives begin pay negotiations.
On Friday, commuters faced a squeeze as hundreds of meter-long lines snaked out of gas stations around the nation, frustrating them and adding to their wait times.
One driver, whose car was already empty, stated, “We’ve been waiting for an hour.” The line hasn’t moved in the least. What we should do is a mystery to me.
Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher issued a statement saying, “The Government is doing its utmost to restore the situation to normal, as quickly as possible.”
According to the French energy ministry, over 20.7 percent of service stations had issues on Saturday as opposed to 19 percent the day before.
Three of the six total refineries are currently not in operation, resulting in a 60 percent production reduction, or 740,000 barrels of gasoline per day, and affecting approximately one-third of the gas stations in France.
Against a backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis and surging profits in the energy sector, the striking employees are requesting a pay raise.
TotalEnergies reported a profit of $5.7 billion in the second quarter of 2022 as opposed to $2.2 million in the corresponding quarter of 2021.
Macron urged calm on all sides on Friday, saying, “Let’s not panic.” Even while the president urged an end to the strikes, he concurred that Total’s executives should consider the “legitimate compensation requests” of their employees.
The areas of northern France most impacted by the strikes are said to be the Île-de-France region around Paris and the northern Hauts-de-France region.
