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French fishermen block ports over petrol prices / Photo: © AFP
French fishermen block ports over petrol prices
Fishermen on Thursday blocked the entrance to two ports and a petrol depot in southern France in protest at rising fuel prices linked to the US-Iran war.
The actions along the Mediterranean coast to bar access to the harbours of Nice and Sete, and a depot in Frontignan, come as petrol prices at French pumps near an all-time high.
The price of diesel, the most widely used fuel in the country, passed 2.37 euros per litre ($2.72 per litre) on Thursday, hovering just under its record of 2.38, according to an AFP analysis of government data.
"We've really had enough," protesting fisherman Tony Dalmasso told AFP in Nice.
"The price of diesel, the European regulations -- it's all just become too much."
Pierre Palumbo was among a group of fishermen who set fire to tyres along a road leading to the oil depot in Frontignan.
"The price of diesel was just the last straw," he said, after other key concerns including catch limits on bluefin tuna and new regulations for fishing eels.
Crude prices have spiked around 20 percent this month as the United States and Iran remain at loggerheads and Saudi Arabia was forced to shut a key pipeline as it battles Houthi fighters in Yemen.
As President Emmanuel Macron's time in office winds down ahead of elections to replace him next year, the government has pointed to the US-Iran conflict as the key culprit.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Wednesday the government would increase its petrol subsidies for the fishing trade to the maximum authorised level allowed under EU rules, but the measure did nothing to quell anger.
"Our main request to the minister is a freeze on prices at the pump," Ange Natoli, a fisherman from the southern town of Martigues near Marseille, told AFP ahead of a meeting with authorities in Paris.
French motorists have clogged TotalEnergies service stations in recent months to fill up with discount petrol, after the energy giant capped its prices at 1.99 euros per litre.
TotalEnergies introduced the cap when political pressure was building to introduce a tax on windfall profits being made by energy companies.
A planned fuel tax hike in 2018 sparked months of Yellow Vests protests during Macron's first term.
burs-ah/sjw/pdw
S. Soerensen--BTZ
