When Emmanuel Macron pinned the future of his presidency on a revamp of France’s state railways, the political scientist Dominique Andolfatto declared it “supreme combat on which our collective future depended”. Today, the French president appears closer to winning his reform of France’s railways after moderate unions signalled a possible end to strikes that have disrupted the country for seven weeks. A government decision to absorb most of the mountainous €47 billion debt of the SNCF railways was grasped by the reformist UNSA and CFDT unions as a concession that opened a possible escape from rolling stoppages. A decision on whether to end the strike “will be taken very rapidly”, said Roger Dillenseger, leader of UNSA. The CFDT, France’s biggest private sector union, welcomed the…

Source: The Times May 25, 2018 15:56 UTC