French protesters were on Thursday staging a day of nationwide protests in France and strikes in a show of anger over President Emmanuel Macron’s austerity policies, causing widespread disruption.
Public transport stalled, schools closed down and tens of thousands of people took to the streets for demonstrations marked by sporadic clashes of the protests with the police.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Macron’s seventh head of government, vowed a break from the past in a bid to defuse a deepening political crisis after taking office last week.
But the appointment of the 39-year-old former defense minister and close Macron ally has failed to calm the anger of unions and many French people.
“Every day the richest get richer and the poor get poorer,” Bruno Cavalier, a 64-year-old protester carrying a placard reading “Smile, you are being taxed”, told AFP in Lyon, France’s third-largest city.
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Protesters remain incensed about the draft 44-billion-euro, $52 billion, cost-saving budget of Lecornu’s predecessor, Francois Bayrou, despite the new premier’s pledges to abolish both life-long privileges for ex-prime ministers and a widely detested plan to scrap two public holidays.
More than 80,000 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed, backed by drones, armored vehicles and water cannons.
Between 600,000 and 900,000 people are expected to take to the streets across France, according to interior ministry estimates ahead of the demonstrations.
As of Thursday noon, more than 76,500 people had taken to the streets, with the rallies so far “less intense than expected,” said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
With unions calling for strikes in a rare show of unity, around one in six teachers at primary and secondary schools walked out while nine out of 10 pharmacies were shuttered.
Commuters faced severe disruption on the Paris Metro, where only the three driverless automated lines were working normally.
Trade unions said they were pleased with the scale of the protests.
“We have recorded 260 demonstrations across France,” said Sophie Binet, leader of the CGT union. “There are thousands and thousands of strikes in all workplaces.”
Police in Paris and Marseille used tear gas to disperse early, unauthorized demonstrations. In Marseille, an AFPTV reporter filmed a policeman kicking a protester on the ground, though police said they had been confronted by “hostile” demonstrators.
In Lyon, a France TV journalist and a police officer were injured during clashes between police and a group of masked youths at the head of the rally.
On the outskirts of the northern city of Lille, protesters took part in an early morning union-led action to block bus depots.
“The aim is to show the government that we’re here, that we’re fed up with being taxed like crazy, that we’re fed up with having trouble making ends meet,” said Samuel Gaillard, a 58-year-old garbage truck driver.
Even schoolchildren joined the actions, with around 300 pupils blocking access to the Maurice Ravel secondary school in eastern Paris, brandishing slogans such as “block your school against austerity”.
Officials said they expected Thursday’s action to be the most widely followed day of union-led protests and strikes since a months-long mobilization in early 2023 against Macron’s widely reviled raising of the retirement age, which the government rammed through parliament without a vote.
While the day of protest represents an early test of crisis management for Lecornu, anger is crystallizing against Macron, who has just one-and-a-half years left in power and is enduring his worst-ever popularity levels.
“The president is the source of chaos, and everything that has happened recently is the result of his actions,” hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon declared in Marseille.
Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez says that he was “very concerned” about the risk that rioters’ intent on provoking fights and damage would infiltrate the union march in Paris, urging shops in the center to close for the day.
A more informal day of action held on September 10, despite isolated disruption, did not deliver on its self-declared aim to “block everything”.
AFP
