61 Hurt as French Fishermen Battle Police in Fight to Protect Industry

Thousands of fishermen battled riot police Friday during a visit by Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, prompting government promises to protect the ailing fishing industry from foreign competition.

Authorities said 61 people--25 police officers and 36 protesters and bystanders--were treated for injuries they suffered in daylong clashes in Rennes. The city is the capital of Brittany, the region at the center of a violent campaign by fishermen across France.

More than 600 riot officers and paramilitary police repeatedly used tear gas, and occasionally clubs, to combat protesters armed with baseball bats, cudgels and paving stones ripped from the streets.

The protesters arrived in Rennes by train and bus, some from distant ports. The crowd was estimated at 4,000 to 5,000, including fishermen, their wives and other supporters.

Fishermen continued to block ports into the night, all but paralyzing traffic between France and Britain.

Anxious to end the violence, Balladur pledged that his conservative government would act on its own to protect the French fishing industry if the 12-nation European Union did not move swiftly to prop up fish prices.

The trade bloc later announced that at France’s request it was setting minimum prices for Atlantic salmon and certain types of imported white fish, meeting one of the protesters’ key demands.

Widespread violence by fishermen this week has resembled protests by French farmers who pressured the government to demand, and eventually win, concessions on farm subsidies in the recently completed world trade accord.