Monday September 18 10:53 AM ET

European Fuel Protests Pick Up Speed

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - Angry truckers and farmers in Europe stepped up their protests against fuel prices Monday, blockading ports and petrol depots while nervous governments scrambled to limit the political fallout. Demonstrations centered on Scandinavia but blockades also sprang up at the Spanish port of Barcelona and in Slovenia, while Israeli truckers threatened to stage their own action from Tuesday.

Irish fishermen added to the chorus of popular outrage, vowing to tie up their boats in ports around the country for 24 hours from mid-day Tuesday.

``We're in trouble,'' said their spokesman. ``If this situation continues we'll be tying up our boats permanently.''

Drivers throughout the continent are dismayed at rising prices of petrol and diesel sparked by higher world oil prices -- which edged up to a new 10-year peak Monday on political tension in the Middle East.

After a weekend lull, the pace of popular protest picked up Monday.

In Norway, demonstrators blocked 11 oil terminals at key ports along the south and west coasts -- although they later called off their protest under the threat of police action.

Swedish truckers and farmers partially blockaded southern ports and ferries Monday in protest at a planned increase in the tax on diesel fuel.

The action was expected to involve about 400 drivers and stop traffic from ferries between Sweden and Denmark and Sweden and Germany.

Spanish fishermen, meanwhile, sealed off Barcelona's port and truckers laid siege to fuel distribution points in the center of the country.

Political Fallout

In Britain, where fuel supplies were gradually returning to normal after last week's blockades, Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair was assessing the political damage.

Conservative opposition leader William Hague called the protests ``a genuine taxpayers' revolt'' and said tax was now ''the hottest domestic political issue'' facing Britain.

A weekend poll put the Conservatives ahead of Labor for the first time in eight years after the protests prompted a shortage of fuel and supplies not seen in Britain since the 1970s.

In Germany, the government put off a decision on offering tax relief in hardship cases caused by soaring oil prices, averting possible friction in the center-left alliance.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats had suggested helping low-income groups like pensioners pay heating oil bills and raising tax breaks for people who drive to work.

But his environmentalist Greens partners -- architects of an unpopular strategy to ratchet up energy taxes -- balked at those proposals and Schroeder moved to defuse the situation.

``There won't be any final decisions today,'' Schroeder told reporters in Berlin before a meeting of SPD leaders Similar coalition problems were besetting France.

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's Communist partners have called a protest march Thursday to demand swift cuts in petrol prices but his Green allies are livid over what they denounce as handouts to polluters.

Talks were also due this week in Ireland, where hauliers have promised to refrain from protests for the time being.

Norway Protests

Norway -- the second biggest oil exporter in the world behind Saudi Arabia -- had escaped the first days of protests even though it has some of the highest petrol and diesel prices.

Monday, however, hundreds of truckers blocked terminals in Oslo, Fredrikstad, Toensberg and Stavanger, all on the southern coast, and two terminals and the Mongstad oil refinery near Bergen in west Norway.

The hauliers announced the blockade last week after Labor Finance Minister Karl Eirik Schjoett-Pedersen refused to promise fuel tax cuts in a draft 2001 budget.

But the protests ended after a few hours when the state oil company Statoil threatened to bring in the police. ``Statoil has reported the blockade to the police and we have therefore decided to call off the demonstrations immediately,'' the truckers said in a statement.

Demonstrations in Spain began last Friday and resumed with a vengeance Monday as fishermen effectively sealed off the port of Barcelona.

``There's no way in or out,'' said a source at the Port Authority in Barcelona. ``Negotiations are going on with a representative of the fishermen.''

Two large cruising vessels were stopped just outside the port and around 200 fishing boats were unable to set out for their daily catch, officials said.

In the central region of Castille and Leon, the main grain-producing region, farmers blocked at least three fuel distribution points, state radio said. Police were trying to break up the demonstrations.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20000918/ts/energy_protests_dc_2.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 18, 2000