Still shrouded in darkness, the A50 motorway is set ablaze. It is 7 a.m. this Monday, December 2, and several hundred taxis have just arrived there, from La Valentine. After traveling a few dozen meters, the procession stops. Firecrackers explode, tires burn. The green LEDs on the taxi plates pierce the thick, acrid smoke. Coming from Aubagne, traffic is paralyzed for 15 kilometers.
It was in this chaos that Monday began, marked by a snail operation of unprecedented scale on the part of taxis, in Provence as in other regions of France. Several processions showed their discontent in Marseille, with a departure from Grand Littoral elsewhere, and from Plan-de-Campagne. Since La Valentine, the drivers have stopped the L2 ring road, supervised by the police, for an hour.
“We will only earn 55 cents per kilometer”
They then slowed down the A7 motorway significantly until the Lançon-Provence tollbooth. According to the organizers, between one and two thousand taxis blocked almost all of the lanes, in both directions, from around 11:30 a.m. The prefecture estimates their number at 800. Some came from Vaucluse, Gard, Aude or even the Côte d'Azur.
France
