After the blockade by Catalan independence activists on November 11 and 12, the Le Perthus border may well be closed again on December 7th following a call to strike by lorry driver’s union, Organisation des transporteurs routiers européens (OTRE) .

Following a planned national strike on 5 December, this latest protest, expected to cause chaos on main roads and motorways around France, has been sparked off by a rise of two centimes on the price of fuel, levied to raise 140 million over a year, to help to improve transport infrastructure. They also believe that the government is “favouring foreign transporters to the detriment of French companies and jobs.”

After a temporary operation launched Thursday at the Belgian border, OTRE called on its members to “exprimer dans la rue la légitime colère de la profession” and to “bloquer les zones frontalières le samedi 7 décembre et les jours suivants”.

If this call is backed by the two main unions, the FNTR and TLF, there could be blockades at all main border crossing.