FRANCE erupted in violent protest today as furious demonstrators clashed with riot police, leaving more than 150 arrested.
Tear gas, burning barricades and smashed pavements marked scenes of chaos from Paris to Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse in what unions dubbed a nationwide “Black Thursday.”
AFPA protester lights flares in Marseille, southeastern France, during a day of nationwide strikes and protests[/caption]
APProtesters in Paris light flares as they march during a demonstration called by major trade unions to oppose budget cuts[/caption]
EPAPeople demonstrate against austerity measures in the upcoming budget in Montpellier, France[/caption]
AFPProtesters hold French national flags and a slogan which reads “Tax the rich” in Bordeaux[/caption]
Nearly a million people were expected to march in anger at Emmanuel Macron’s government, with more than 250 rallies called against budget cuts worth £40 billion.
In Paris, protesters set fire to wooden pallets outside the Gare du Nord, while masked students lit red flares and blocked high school entrances.
The Eiffel Tower shut down, Metro lines were crippled, and bus drivers, teachers and hospital staff walked off the job.
Chants of “Macron, resign!” also echoed across the capital.
As riot squads sealed off the station doors, Sud-Rail activist Anasse Kazib said: “The police are afraid of an invasion of the Gare du Nord, so they are invading it themselves.”
Authorities deployed an extraordinary force of 80,000 police and gendarmes, backed by 24 armoured vehicles, 10 water cannons and drones.
Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez admitted he was “very concerned” about ultra-left groups infiltrating the marches.
Officers reported around 1,000 suspected Black Bloc anarchists targeting the capital alone.
“Many of the arrests are preventative – people are turning up ready for trouble, including carrying weapons,” said a police spokesman, confirming around 150 arrests nationwide.
By midday, Interior Ministry officials reported 94 arrests, including 15 in Paris, and 20 road fires as protesters tried to block the ring road and Metro lines.
Union members even stormed the Finance Ministry, lighting smoke bombs and chanting: “Bercy, you’re done for, the workers are in the streets.”
The strikes bit deep: a third of teachers walked out, nine in 10 pharmacies shut, and Metro services were reduced to skeleton runs.
Rail workers threatened rolling disruption, while air traffic chaos was narrowly avoided after controllers delayed a walkout until October.
With violence spreading, the government braces for more disruption.
As outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned: “The risks of public disorder are significant.”
The unrest is aimed at next year’s budget, proposed by former PM François Bayrou before his government collapsed in a confidence vote on September 8.
His successor, Sébastien Lecornu, has ditched plans to scrap two public holidays but refused to rule out sweeping welfare cuts, including to unemployment and health insurance.
Sophie Binet, head of the CGT union, blasted Macron’s austerity drive as “unprecedented brutality” against “workers, the unemployed, pensioners and the sick”.
She hailed the holiday U-turn as “a first victory” but warned “none of the other catastrophic measures from François Bayrou’s horror museum have been taken off the table.”
Shutterstock EditorialThe unrest is aimed at Emmanuel Macron’s government[/caption]
AFPA protester holds a banner reading “Macron, game over, now you have to give back the money and get lost” in Paris[/caption]
ReutersA protesters holding a CGT labour union flag stands amid tear gas during clashes with French police at a demonstration in Nantes[/caption]
Macron’s reforms come as France wrestles with a £3trillion debt —114% of GDP — and after Fitch downgraded the country’s credit rating last week.
Lecornu has sought to calm down critics with moves like ending “lifetime benefits for former prime ministers”, which cost £4million a year, but unions remain unmoved.
The revolt has drawn comparisons with the 2018-19 Yellow Vest uprising.
But analysts say this wave is powered by younger protesters demanding “more social justice and less inequality.”
Fred, a bus driver and CGT rep, said: “Workers are currently so despised by this government and by Macron that it can’t continue like this.”
Teacher Gaetan Legay agreed: “I am here to defend public services, in particular, to demand that public money goes back into public services… rather than to large companies or in tax gifts to the ultra-rich.”
For many, the anger runs deep.
“Young people are the future, the old generation left us with a sh***y world, a sh***y government,” said 21-year-old student Alice Morin.
“It is up to us to fight to change that and dance on the ashes of the old world.”
Despite the chaos, a majority of French people remain sympathetic.
A poll for BFMTV found 56 per cent support or have sympathy for the strike, though that’s slightly down from the mass pension protests of 2023.
Shutterstock EditorialRailway unions’ protesters who managed to enter the Ministry of Economy, Bercy in Paris[/caption]
AFPA protester kicks a tear gas during demonstrations in Paris[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
