"I told them to unblock or I would push": tensions between workers and September 10 blockaders

Blockades are underway across France, in major cities and rural areas. Operations to block traffic routes and railways have been reported, and law enforcement has made around 100 arrests .

VTCs, taxis, craftsmen, delivery drivers... In this sometimes tense situation, several people trying to get to work are expressing their dismay.

>> READ ALSO - September 10: follow the developments of the situation live

"I covered 600m in 40 minutes, passing through ridiculous little departmental roads," laments Quentin, a craftsman in Valet (Loire-Atlantique) near Nantes, as protesters blocked roundabouts. Karim, a VTC driver in Rennes, is seeing the same thing: "I'm working, but the protesters are blocking and burning the ring road," he warns.

Both speak of tense situations. Karim, first, claims to have been attacked: "I've just been verbally assaulted, there are about a hundred of them, they're students, 'baboss from Rennes,' they don't know what it's like to work, they have mom and dad behind them."

Quentin, a craftsman, also spoke on RMC about "people who don't work, retirees, young people," adding that he had to force a roadblock: "I told them to unblock or I pushed, they didn't want to, I pushed, I scratched my truck."

"They're burning down the Rennes ring road, and we're going to pay for it with our taxes again. Protesting is good, but not destroying things," Samir sighs.

Expected on the set of Les Grandes Gueules this Wednesday, Antoine Diers also found himself stuck in the North, unable to catch his train to Paris: "I had anticipated but even leaving earlier to go from Dunkirk to Lille and take a TGV, I found myself blocked at 6 a.m. by a barrier of burning pallets, 30 meters from me," he says.

"After 30-40 minutes we managed to slip through the burning barricade but I missed my train," he continued on RMC Story .

"I understand the anger, but when I saw the road burning, I told myself I was going to have to pay back again," adds Antoine Diers. "Nothing's going well, but the demands for two public holidays, who cares! The country is in agony, and people are coming to quibble; we have to go to work," adds Quentin.

"What we didn't want is happening," laments Loïc, a chartered accountant in Val-de-Marne who presents himself as one of the instigators of the ' Nicolas qui paie ' movement on social media, one of the movements that pushed for this day of mobilization. "We had issued press releases since August saying that we didn't want to hinder the movement of people and goods."

"Our movement is fed up with taxes, with the wasteful, non-exemplary nature of our political class," adds Loïc. "No violence, no aggression; we want actions related to spending and consumption, targeting multinationals that are more subsidized than small businesses," he demands.