French police scuffle with fishermen in fuel protests

Riot police scuffled with striking fishermen at two French ports yesterday, clearing away blockades the protesters had set up in their long-running battle against high fuel costs.

Fishermen in the western port of Lorient fired flare guns at police after they tried to clear away burning tyres. The security forces responded with teargas and arrested six men.

Police also forcibly removed fishermen blocking a major oil port near the southern city of Marseille that has been repeatedly targeted by the protesters in recent weeks. French fishermen have been protesting against the surging cost of oil for weeks, with counterparts in neighbouring countries starting to follow suit.

However, some of the French fishermen have decided to return to work after the government sought EU backing to pump more cash into the industry, including at the Atlantic port of La Rochelle, which has been in the vanguard of the protest.

"We are suspending the strike. We are ready to start it again at any moment if, for example, Europe does not budge," said Pascal Guenezan, a spokesman for fishermen in La Rochelle.

But other diehard trawler crews are fighting on and were joined yesterday by hundreds of farmers, who used their tractors to block fuel depots near the eastern city of Dijon, the southern city of Toulouse and in two regions near the Alps.

Four of the country's main trucker organisations, as well as the national taxi federation, said they too were awaiting measures from the government and warned that they would also stage protests unless they received aid. The government has pledged to grant €110 million this year to the fishermen and is now in talks with truck drivers to see if it can help them.

"We are working on structural and more immediate measures to improve the companies' finances," Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau told LCI TV.

Any direct subsidies would be illegal under European Union competition law, so the French government is looking to find a way around the rules and negotiate a deal in Brussels. The EU's fisheries chief said yesterday there may be room for short-term aid, but warned that Europe's fishing fleets must adapt to spiralling fuel costs by reducing overcapacity.

"Fuel subsidies, besides being illegal, would do absolutely nothing to deal with the underlying problems," EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said in a statement.