Polish taxi drivers brought Warsaw traffic to a crawl yesterday and joined a growing list of groups that have threatened similar protests during next month’s European soccer championship.
The drivers, opposing government plans to do away with taxi permits as part of a drive to free up various occupations, blocked several major roads and bridges around the Polish capital in the morning and ended their protest hours later in front of the parliament building.
Similar protests took place in other Polish cities, including Wroclaw and Gdansk, which will also host Euro 2012 matches starting on June 8th.
“We don’t rule out the possibility of doing something on June 8th,” said Pawel Biedrzycki, one of the protest organisers in Warsaw. “But we are also soccer fans, so we really don’t want to block [the city]. It would be our last resort.”
Several Polish trade unions have already said they may use the spotlight of the Euro 2012 tournament to publicise their differences with the government over an unpopular law to raise the retirement age.