” How did we get here ? » wonders The Latest News from Alsace. “The strike too many that makes the French angry” title Le Figaro while the Parisian Today in France try to understand “how the movement got out of control”. The daily poses the problem: “Despite the management’s proposals, the work stoppage among the controllers, built on the sidelines of the unions, will deprive 200,000 passengers of their train. »
The voice of the North goes back to the previous social movement, at the beginning of December: for the daily, it is since this strike that “SNCF is struggling to establish a dialogue with a collective of controllers who have organized themselves on Facebook to demand better recognition”.
“The strike during the Christmas periods: it is the atomic weapon”, ensures the Parisian. “A weapon often brandished by railway workers, but rarely used”, recalls the daily which quotes an employee of the SNCF: “ Putting down the bag, as we say at home, for Christmas and New Year’s is the absolute weapon. You don’t push that button on a whim.”
User fatigue and anger
“Repeated social movements, overcrowded, late or canceled trains, signaling faults or passenger accidents… SNCF customers are less and less tolerant of this ordeal which they often endure in silence”. And West France give them the floor: “I cried straight away”, tells Chloé on a daily basis when she “learned that his train was canceled due to a social movement”. But the young woman is not angry with the strikers, specifies Ouest France: “if they manage to do such a thing, it really shouldn’t be going very well”, she confides. On the contrary, Le Figaro affirms that with this strike, this collective of controllers “has, it seems, crossed the limits of the tolerable”. The daily life of quoting Céline, Parisian executive : “We are taken hostage with the SNCF which has the railway monopoly. I never thought I would say that one day, but I became a supporter of privatization”.
On the railway side, the Parisian highlights “a deep resentment accumulated by the controllers”. They were “on the front line during the Covid-19 pandemic to welcome customers despite the virus, they were on the front line again last summer when equipment problems accumulated for lack of arms and means to repair them”. The daily to quote an administrator of the SNCF: “The controllers are a bit like the hostesses and stewards vis-à-vis the pilots at Air France. They have the feeling of being less well considered when they are the image of the SNCF. »
Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington
A travel “shrouded in secrecy until the last minute”, recount Le Figaro. Release goes back to the underside of this trip and underlines the big gap between the visit of the Ukrainian president to the front and his trip to the United States. “Going from Bakhmout to Washington in one day is reminiscent of the speed of travel of James Bond”, confides a Ukrainian journalist to the daily.
Did Volodymyr Zelenski even have time to change? The Parisian notices that when he left the plane, he was still wearing his “traditional Khaki trellis”. A way perhaps to remind Americans that Ukraine is at war, and that his country needs help. The Ukrainian journalist interviewed by Release wants to be reassuring on this subject: “Americans will not let such a guest go away empty-handed for Christmas.”
And she’s not mistaken, reminds The cross : “Joe Biden has said he wants to bolster U.S. support for Ukraine. Among this aid, the Ukrainian army could benefit from the American Patriot air defense system ».
But here, on his side, reminds ReleaseVolodymyr Zelensky did not come empty-handed. “From the devastated city of Bakhmout, he brought back a national flag signed by Ukrainian soldiers and promised to hand it over to the Americans with this message: “We are grateful for their support, but it is not enough.
The newspaper concludes: “Perhaps Volodymyr Zelenski will have mentioned to Congress the striking contrast between his whirlwind visit to an American capital adorned with festive illuminations and the dark and icy winter that is beginning for his country, where he must return from this Thursday ».