As the Euro 2016 football championship kicks off today in France, it remains to be seen how president Francois Hollande will deal with the ongoing labor strikes that have erupted throughout the country, disrupting fuel and transportation.
"France was chosen to host this big event and will live up to the scale of the task." Hollande said, adding "I will be paying close attention and if decisions need to be made, they will be made. Public services will be provided, the whole of Europe will be watching."
Transportation remains a large concern, especially as an estimated 1.5 million fans begin to arrive for the matches. Rail services have improved as a nine-day strike over work and rest time ran out of steam France 24 reports, however the SUD union was still threatening to disrupt trains on Friday carrying spectators to France's opening match against Romania – "the Euros are here and let me tell you this, it's going to be hard to take the RER D on Friday. They'll find some non-strikers to man trains, but it's going to be complicated to get there by train."
Transportation Minister Alain Vidalies said train drivers would be forced to ensure public transport for fans if needed. "If requisitioning is required, we will do it. There will be no more negotiating. There's no longer any reason to continue the strike if it's not for political reasons."
Air France said it would have to cancel up to 30% of flights as a result of a four-day walkout by pilots. Airline chief Frederic Gagey said "Of course, we'll look after the Euro tournament", adding that the dispute would cost the airline $5.66 million a day, the type of financial disruption that Finance Minister Michel Sapin said risks undermining a nascent pickup in economic growth.
"This is not the moment to throw a spanner into the works, with growth picking up" Sapin said.
In what may be a sign that tensions may be thawing a little bit, CGT union leader Philippe Martinez confirmed that Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri had invited him to talks, but not for another week. "It's what we've been demanding for months, it's far better to talk than to ignore France's main trade union" Martinez said of the development.
Although there may be slight progress with the unions, one very immediate problem is that Paris visitors have been met with is piles of trash in the streets. As a result of an ongoing trash collection strike that CGT has said would extend through June 14th, no trash has been getting cleared. French authorities are dealing with this by sending in private trash collection trucks to clear the piles of rotting garbage.
"All the rubbish will be cleared up, starting now, today. It will take a few days obviously" said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
On the security side of things, France remains in a state of emergency after last November's attacks in Paris, and 90,000 police and other security officials have been assigned to patrol fan zones and stadiums.
And of course what would the Euro 2016 be without fans clashing before the matches. French police fired tear gas and released dogs after midnight in Marseilles' Old Port area Thursday night, where English fans clashed with locals. Anthony Heraud, manager of O'Malley's bar said that the French had turned up intent on provoking the visiting fans. "There were problems with the people from outside Marseilles. They came for provocation." Heraud said.
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And with that, Euro 2016 is officially underway…
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