Last Road Barriers Cleared in France
Police cleared out the last few highway barricades Thursday as millions of vacationers prepared to hit the road and economists assessed the damage from a 10-day disruption by French truckers.
Business leaders condemned the government for failing to respond quickly to the paralyzing strike staged by truck drivers to protest a new road safety law imposing stiffer penalties for traffic violations.
Others criticized the government for not consulting truckers before adopting the law and for putting the new rules into place in the middle of the tourist season.
The strike was a blow to President Francois Mitterrand’s Socialist government, which had started to recover in opinion polls after defeats in regional elections last spring.
“The incompetence with which the government has managed the conflict is beginning to have serious consequences on life in this country,” said an editorial in the conservative newspaper Le Figaro.
The last barricades around the southwestern city of Toulouse came down Thursday morning. Most of the other barriers were removed Wednesday after an agreement between the government and a trucking group to shorten drivers’ hours and provide alternative jobs for drivers whose licenses are suspended.
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