the oil depots of Brest and Lorient blocked

“We will stay here until we are heard” : fishermen, farmers, transporters, or even professionals in the public works sector blocked, on Tuesday March 15, the oil depots of Brest and Lorient to denounce the surge in fuel prices.

“We are starting to raise our voices, and it will go more and more |far] if we are not listened to and we do not have quick and urgent measures”promised to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Sébastien Le Prince, skipper-fisherman who came from Loctudy (south of Finistère) to block the Brest depot, despite the promises of the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, to come to the aid to the profession.

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“We will not let the fishermen down, I say it here”, said Mr. Castex on Tuesday during a speech at the prefecture of Brittany. He had already promised during the last week for fishermen “measures allowing a reduction of their social and port charges”.

“The boats are stopped, they are at a standstill”regretted Sébastien Le Prince, in reference to the activity in the ports of Loctudy, Saint-Guénolé and Guilvinec, the first artisanal fishing port in France, where Monday, at the end of the day, only a handful of boats unloaded their fish at the auction.

“We cannot pass on the increase in fuel to the fish. A kilo of monkfish today at five euros, tomorrow it will be at five euros, or even at 4.80 despite the rise in oil prices. We can’t do anything, we’re like farmers to whom we dictate the price of pork”explained the fisherman, not far from a fire of pallets and trunks regularly fed by the demonstrators.

“Diesel too expensive, boat ashore” Where “diesel too expensive, we have it in the back”could we read on banners hung in front of the enclosure of the oil depot.

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“Everyone works at a loss”

About 200 people, including a hundred fishermen, were present in the morning in front of the site near which about forty machines (trucks, tractors) were parked. In the afternoon, the deposit was still blocked, although the fishermen went to Quimper to demonstrate in front of the prefecture.

“We will stay here until we are heard”assured François Calvez, president of the Finistère branch of the National Confederation of Public Works and Landscape Craftsmen (CNATP). “We all lose money going to work”he said.

In Morbihan, in Lorient, “there is a blockage by transporters, fishermen, public works, farmers”told AFP Marc Lhonoré, director of the oil depot. “I don’t know how long this will last. »

The Morbihan prefecture reported that the situation was ” calm “.

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On the spot, Norbert Guillou, president of the Morbihan branch of the CNATP, assured AFP by telephone that there were 200 people and a hundred trucks and vehicles. “There are truckers, taxis, fishermen, farmers, ambulance drivers, fishermen… Everyone who uses fuel”he listed. “We will stay until the government makes the right decision and freezes taxes. Because we have fallen below the break-even point. Everyone works at a loss. If we have to stay ten days, we will stay ten days.he promised.

This Lorient depot was blocked for eighteen days in 2018 and ten days in 2019 to request the maintenance of the “off-road diesel” (GNR) for professionals, he recalled.

In the North, the Rural Coordination organized a symbolic action on Tuesday: a few tractors refueled together in Avelin, south of Lille, in order to warn of the consequences of soaring prices for farms with “depleted treasuries”.

In Ardèche and Haute-Loire, two service stations have chosen to go on fuel strike, faced with rising prices “unjustified”.

The World with AFP

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