Don’t cave in, Mr Hollande

FRANCE has been looking forward to staging a big spectacle this month. Euro 2016, an international football tournament second in importance only to the World Cup, kicks off in the Stade de France near Paris on June 10th, the first of 51 matches around the country ending with the final on July 10th. But a spectacle of a different sort is attracting attention to France early, and for the wrong reasons: industrial unrest, which threatens to spread chaos and spoil the party. Last week a blockade of oil refineries led to panic among motorists as petrol stations ran dry. This week the havoc spread to the railways. Pilots at Air France have voted to disrupt flights. A national day of strikes is threatened on June 14th, when the Senate, the upper house, is due to consider the changes to France’s labour laws which are at the centre of the dispute.