French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said Saturday he would re-examine a proposed reform after taxi drivers threatened to step up protest actions, including paralysing access to Paris airports and the Roland Garros tennis tournament.
French taxi drivers have over the last week blocked roads at points across the country in an increasingly acrimonious standoff with the government about payments for transporting patients, which for many cab drivers form a major part of their businesses.
"We'll be working on the details of the decisions, measures and directions that need to be taken over the coming weeks," Bayrou told journalists after meeting with taxi federations.
"They have ideas for making savings," he added.
Earlier Saturday, cab drivers had threatened further blockades, notably of Paris airports and of Sunday's first round of Roland Garros.
In the afternoon, some 1,200 cabs were parked on a boulevard near the transport ministry's offices in Paris.
Their chief demand is the scrapping of new rules coming into force in October on the transportation of patients to harmonise prices nationwide, which the taxi drivers say will severely erode their income.
"We are calling for the immediate withdrawal of this agreement and for a return to the negotiating table," Emmanuelle Cordier, president of the National Taxi Federation (FNDT), told France Info radio Saturday morning.
Grievances against ride-hailing services such as Uber and Bolt have also resurfaced, with taxi drivers seeing them as a poorly regulated threat to their livelihood.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
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