THERE were tears and kisses yesterday as a partial lifting of the blockade of the ferry port in Calais allowed nearly 100 lorry drivers, including two from Ireland, to board a ship for Dover.
The French union leader organising the dispute in Calais, Mr Phillipe Rault, is understood to have negotiated the deal without the authority of his union's representatives in Paris, where negotiations with their employers and the French government have broken down.
It means the prospects of an end to the truckers dispute throughout France may not come before the weekend. The French government appealed to the drivers last night to end the strike.
The blockade was lifted late in the afternoon following negotiations with the French drivers and representatives of the British, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish drivers, which were overshadowed by fears of violence.
With up to five days delay in Calais behind them, and the prospect of another weekend stranded in France, some of the British drivers had said they were considering breaking the road block outside the port, using violence if necessary.
Their comments came against the background of an earlier statement by Mr Rault that his men were prepared to use "Molotov cocktails" to defend themselves against the police if they were called in by the government to end the strike.
The decision to lift the blockade could not have come sooner for the stranded drivers. At 2 p.m. it was announced that they would be allowed to drive through Gate 8 and board the next boat crossing to Dover. An hour later, however, the two Norbert Dentressangle lorries blocking the gate had not been moved.
Mr Rault insisted that the delay was simply a question of "finding the keys" to the lorries.
Within a few minutes, as he was surrounded by journalists and television crews, Mr Rault was cheered by French and British truckers when he handed over the keys of the lorry to his colleague and the partial lifting of the blockade began. As lorries passed through the gate, many drivers gave up a thumbs up sign some, however, were still clearly angry with the strikers and shouted or swore at them.
Mr Rault told The Irish Times that the decision to lift the blockade had been taken locally. He said: "We have been here for three to four days now and we are all very cold and tired. It is difficult for everyone to stay in one place for that time.
He insisted that the possibility of a confrontation between his members and the foreign drivers had not been a factor in the decision. "No, we have made good friends here," he said.
But as a handful of British drivers cheered their colleagues as they left the port, some said that the breakthrough would have "little or no effect on our situation".
One of the drivers left behind in Calais, who had an assurance from the French that he could leave the port last night, said: "It's hardly worth it. The local picket may be lifted so that we can leave, but there is another one about 20 kilometres down the road at St Omer, so it wouldn't be worth us moving just to park on a grass verge for another week. We know that the pickets from here have been going to St Omer to strengthen the strike there."
Meanwhile, some of the estimated 400 lorry drivers stranded in Dover were annoyed to see French lorries, as well as British and Irish, arriving in the port during the lifting of the blockade.
Mr Tommy Galvin of Dublin had spent 24 hours in a lorry park at Ashford, Kent, waiting for a place on a ship to Belgium, after abandoning hopes of getting to Calais. "They shouldn't have let the French drivers ship," he said. "They're the ones who are supposed to be on strike.