Paris, Dec 02: No one is sure whether it was legal, but French diplomats and Foreign Ministry personnel at home and abroad walked off the job for a day in an unprecedented strike to protest budget cuts they say are hampering France's diplomatic ambitions. From Washington to Jakarta, Indonesia, where an ambassador joined yesterday's strikers, embassies and consular offices were hobbled, and in some cases closed, in 126 countries.
The UNSA-USMAE union said that 94 per cent of employees in Paris and at posts around the world took part. However, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said that only half of diplomatic officials abroad actually stayed off the job, though more said they backed the protest.
While a diplomatic embarrassment, de Villepin tried to put a positive spin on the walkout, saying last night it only underscored "the will of the civil servants of this ministry to be able to work in good conditions."
De Villepin himself concurred that new budget cuts proposed for 2004 would be damaging.
"It's not possible to reduce our means further," de Villepin said in an interview published today in the financial daily Les Echos. "I hope that next year the ministry is among the priority ministries" to match "France's ambitions on the international scene."
Bureau Report