French protesters have staged a day of nationwide protests and demonstrations in an expression of anger over France’s President, Emmanuel Macron’s austerity policies, causing widespread disruption.
Schools were shuttered, public transport was halted, and tens of thousands of people participated in protests that included occasional altercations with the police.
Macron’s seventh prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, took office last week and promised a departure from the past in an effort to calm a deteriorating political crisis.
However, unions and many French citizens remain incensed despite the selection of the 39-year-old former defence minister and close Macron ally.
“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.
Despite the new premier’s promises to eliminate lifelong privileges for former prime ministers and a widely denounced plan to eliminate two public holidays, protesters are still furious about Francois Bayrou’s proposed 44 billion euros ($52 billion) cost-cutting budget.
Armed with water cannons, armoured vehicles, and drones, over 80,000 police officers and gendarmes have been deployed.
Prior to the protests, the interior ministry predicted that between 600,000 and 900,000 people would join the French protests.
More than 76,500 people have taken to the streets as of Thursday midday, and Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described the rallies as “less intense than expected” thus far.
According to reports, nine out of ten pharmacies were closed, and almost one in six primary and secondary school teachers walked out in a rare display of solidarity with unions calling for strikes.
Only the three driverless automated lines on the Paris Metro were operating normally, causing significant disruptions for commuters.
The size of the protests satisfied trade unions, they said.
“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.”
Tear gas was deployed by police to break up early, unapproved protests in Paris and Marseille. Although police said they had been confronted by “hostile” protesters, an AFPTV reporter saw a police officer in Marseille kicking a protester on the ground.
Police clashed with a group of masked adolescents at the rally’s head in Lyon, injuring a police officer and a France TV journalist.
Protesters participated in an early-morning union-led operation to block bus depots on the outskirts of Lille, a city in northern France.
“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.
With signs like “block your school against austerity,” some 300 students from the Maurice Ravel secondary school in eastern Paris participated in the demonstrations.
Since a months-long campaign in early 2023 against Macron’s highly despised retirement age increase, which the government forced through parliament without a vote, officials said they anticipated Thursday’s action to be the most widely followed day of union-led rallies and strikes.
The protest day is an early test of Lecornu’s crisis management skills, but resentment is growing against Macron, who is experiencing his lowest popularity ratings ever and has only one and a half years left in office.
“The president is the source of chaos, and everything that has happened recently is the result of his actions,” hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon declared in Marseille.
Laurent Nunez, the head of Paris police, told AFP on Wednesday that he was “very concerned” about the possibility that rioters who want to cause clashes and damage would infiltrate the union march in Paris and asked stores in the city centre to close for the day.
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