Quotes of the Day

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder isn't the only one seeing his summer vacation plans implode. Arts enthusiasts from around the world arrived in France last week for the annual summer festival season, but were treated to an unwelcome drama, as half a dozen marquee events were canceled — including the legendary Avignon festival, shut down for the first time in its 57-year history. On Thursday, Avignon director Bernard Faivre d'Arcier somberly announced his program had fallen victim to unruly protests by striking performing-arts workers — strikes that torpedoed music festivals in Aix-en-Provence and La Rochelle earlier in the week. Many more events in France's annual calendar of 650 arts fests are also expected to fold, depriving hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers of their summer culture fix.

The demonstrations by performance workers — from actors and choreographers to roadies — are part of a rising tide of opposition to the reforms planned by the government of conservative Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and President Jacques Chirac. In May and June, public-sector workers launched crippling nationwide strikes, and a week ago Corsicans narrowly rejected a referendum intended to launch Raffarin's effort to decentralize power to regional capitals. But as arts workers took France's beloved (and lucrative) festival season hostage to protest cutbacks in their unemployment benefits, summer itself seemed under siege — and Raffarin appeared to be on the ropes.

The Corsican debacle is a case in point. Critics say the Corsicans defeated the Raffarin referendum in part because it was a way to hit back at what they see as the government's arrogance on the reform issue. There's grumbling even within conservative ranks that the recent performing-arts cuts were too heavily influenced by the country's big employers' organization. Mainstream unions have been further radicalized by what they call government collusion with marginal labor groups on reform. "This government's inability to negotiate is compounded by a talent for fanning protests at the worst moments imaginable," notes Jean-Claude Graziani, secretary-general of the CGT union in Upper Corsica. "It managed to lose a Corsican vote that should have been an easy win, and picked the opening of summer festivals to provoke arts workers." Unions promise renewed national strikes in September.

For now, protests continue to disrupt, shut down and perhaps even bankrupt festivals. "This is a terrible waste not just for visitors, but for the troupes who came from around the world and can't perform," laments retired doctor Alexandre Lumbroso, who arrived in Avignon for his 15th straight year to learn the program had been scrapped. "Protesters say they're protecting the arts by preventing artists from performing. It's scandalous."

• BRUCE CRUMLEY
• Strikes in Paris and elsewhere led to canceled shows