Alexis Delafontaine
The SNCF controllers’ strike disrupts holiday traffic and frustrates users. The government has clearly expressed its dissatisfaction with this movement. On the left side, embarrassment is in order for fear of incurring the wrath of strikers and travellers.
Two days before the start of the Christmas festivities, the train controllers’ strike provokes the anger of travelers but also that of the government. “At Christmas, we don’t go on strike,” said government spokesman Olivier Véran. On the left side, silence is required for fear of incurring the wrath of travelers and strikers.
A divisive subject for the left
On social networks, no NUPES party has officially supported the SNCF strikers. Contacted by Europe 1, several left-wing elected officials refused to be questioned on this very divisive subject as the end of the year celebrations approached.
Artur Delaporte, one of the few Socialist deputies to speak, believes that the government must act as a priority. “The responsibility of the government is to find a way out of this strike because the government can bang its fist on the table. It can help things move forward and therefore it has a particular responsibility in what is also happening today”, he believes at the microphone of Europe 1.
The fear which rises in the rows of the NUPES is to see the public opinion being opposed to the strikers. With the shortages of the start of the school year, the blocking of the end of year celebrations and the operations planned against the pension reform from January, this would be too good an offering to make to the government, worries an elected representative on the left.