FRENCH workers defied government threats and continued striking over the hated El Khomri labour law yesterday as the Euro 2016 football tournament began.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies vowed to use scab labour after rail workers threatened to walk out on the line serving the Stade de France in St Denis outside Paris, where France played Romania in the opening match.

“If requisitioning is required … we will do it,” he said. “There will be no more negotiating.”

Air France pilots called a four-day strike from today, just as an estimated two million football supporters were set to arrive in the country.

Sports Minister Thierry Braillard moaned that disrupting the tournament was “just not normal.”

But train driver Berenger Cernon, who is also secretary of the CGT union federation’s branch at the Gare de Lyon in Paris, was defiant, saying: “We did not decide that the Euros will take place on this date.

“There is a social movement going on now. The reorganisation [of labour] continues, the labour law continues.”

On Thursday, President Francois Hollande said he would take “all necessary measures” to make sure the tournament goes smoothly.

“Public services will be provided,” he vowed. “The whole of Europe will be watching.”

In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo drafted in 80 privately operated bin lorries and crews to clear up piles of stinking rubbish that have accumulated during a 12-day refuse collectors’ strike in the capital.

But with strikers blockading the the main landfill for several days now, Ms Hidalgo’s promise to clean up the streets in 12 hours seemed unlikely to be kept.

Baptiste Talbot of the CGT said Ms Hidalgo’s pledge was “a bit optimistic,” but he didn’t object to her aim.

“We want to maintain pressure with the strike, but we are sensitive to sanitary issues,” he said.

“Let us be clear, the government has no intention of withdrawing this law, or of unravelling it,” said Labour Minister Myriam El Khomri.

She pledged to meet CGT general secretary Philippe Martinez “in a minute if it would allow us to remove the blockages in this country.”