FRANCE: France's conservative government faced a new bout of unrest yesterday over plans to sell off shares in state businesses as thousands of energy and airport workers took to the streets in a mass demonstration.
Some 50,000 demonstrators marched through Paris with banners declaring "No To Privatisation" and attacking government moves to turn energy utilities EdF and GdF into private companies and sell shares in companies such as airport operator Aeroports de Paris (ADP).
The strike by Électricité de France workers caused dips in electricity supply around the country but EdF officials said the major outages that had been threatened by trade unions had not materialised.
"There is no supply disruption to our customers," an EdF spokesman said. An earlier strike in April cut 12,000 megawatts from the system and led to a temporary drop in exports from Europe's top power supplier.
President Jacques Chirac's two-year-old centre-right government has faced a series of protests over reforms such as last year's cuts to state pension provisions and this year's bid to tackle rising deficits in France's prized healthcare system. It faces a mass street demonstration against the healthcare reform plans on June 5th, just over a week before European Parliament elections which some commentators suggest could turn into an embarrassing protest vote against Mr Chirac and his team. Parliament is due to debate on June 15th a Bill that would transform EdF and Gaz de France into private companies and prepare the way for them to issue shares some time next year.
Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted that the state will retain a controlling share in the companies - possibly as much as two-thirds - but unions see the move as an attack on France's strong tradition of public services. "We'll be drawn into a trap where private capital will impose increasingly its viewpoint on such a fundamental good as the provision and distribution of energy," said Mr Bernard Thibault, head of the large Communist-linked CGT union.
CGT officials said they had seen internal EdF documents suggesting it will raise prices by up to 15 per cent over three years once it had been turned into a private company. No comment was immediately available from EdF.-