The French Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, yesterday came under pressure to deploy security forces against lorry drivers and farmers who have blockaded fuel depots and refineries since Monday.
Mr Jospin implicitly raised the possibility of using force when he delivered a warning to lorry drivers on Wednesday night. "I want to tell you clearly that the government will go no further," Mr Jospin said, alluding to an offer rejected by haulage companies. "There will be no more negotiations. The company owners must realise the damage they would do to their own businesses if they pursue the blockade."
Mr Jospin's new, tough line was tested yesterday morning when riot police prevented about 100 farmers on tractors from approaching the loading area for freight at the Channel Tunnel at Coquelles, near Calais. But the farmers then blocked a main access road 800 yards away, forcing lorries to take a smaller road which quickly became bottlenecked. Motorists using the Channel Tunnel were also slowed down by having to wind through the barricade. Traffic from Britain towards France was not affected.
In 1992, the French army broke up lorry drivers' blockades protesting a points-based driver's licence system. The head of the business management federation MEDEF, Mr Ernest-Antoine Selliere, yesterday called the protesters' methods "inadmissible and dangerous" and said it was the state's duty to intervene.
"For years, certain professions and social categories in France have felt they should render justice themselves, using illegal means," Mr Selliere continued. The centre-right deputy Mr Dominique Paille said Mr Jospin would "have the credibility of a paper tiger" if he did not stick to his ultimatum. But Mr Francois Hollande, the head of the socialist party, said force would be used only as a "last resort" in the event of "complete paralysis of the economy."
France seems to be moving towards that "complete paralysis". More than a third of the country's oil facilities - 102 out of 300 - remained cut off by barricades yesterday. Motorists could not buy petrol in Lyon, Marseilles, Strasbourg, Toulouse or Tours. Demonstrators also cut train traffic between Paris and Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Toulouse.
The crisis is beginning to have far-reaching effects: in Lyon, a magistrate said prison inmates were not being freed because fuel for the vehicles used to transport them was rationed. Beaujolais wine-makers, who are harvesting grapes now, are worried about transport. Lyon car rental agencies said 20 per cent of their vehicles were off the road. The French post offices says mail delivery will be disrupted next week if the blockades continue. The Rungis wholesale market is predicting food shortages within days. Eight out of ten petrol stations in the provinces are partly or completely out of fuel.
Because police were placed around storage depots in the Ilede-France, Paris region at the onset of the crisis, the capital has suffered less inconvenience, though the police said panic-buying has created shortages in 70 of 162 stations.
Despite the prime minister's ultimatum, negotiations between the haulage federations and transport minister resumed yesterday evening. It was a day of piecemeal meetings - between ambulance drivers and the social affairs minister; taxi drivers and the interior minister; farmers and the agriculture minister. The farmers' representative, Mr Luc Guyau, said he had not received the fuel tax reduction he sought. "At present, it's excluded that the farmers will lift their presence on the barricades," he said.
And the chaos is spreading. Although the French economy is growing and the finance minister has announced Ffr 120 billion in tax reductions, the generous settlement given to fishermen who blocked ports last week inspired their compatriots to demand equal treatment.
Disruption over fuel costs spread to Britain overnight as farmers mounted a blockade. Some 150 Cheshire farmers began a blockade of an oil refinery at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port, on the north-west coast.
Mr David Handley, chairman of Farmers for Action UK, co-ordinating the protest, said farmers felt they were being "screwed". He told BBC News 24: "We have decided to follow our counterparts in France. This is going to be an ongoing situation. I would suggest to you this is going to be the winter of unrest."