Responding to a call from trade unions, protesters staged a day of nationwide actions, with public transport stalled, schools closed, and people taking to the streets for demonstrations marked by sporadic clashes with the police.
One trade union, the leftist CGT, stated that over a million people across the country had participated in the demonstrations. French authorities, whose count is typically much lower than that of unions, reported that more than 500,000 people had protested nationwide, including 55,000 in Paris.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, Macron’s seventh head of government since 2017, vowed a break from the past to defuse a deepening political crisis after taking office last week. However, 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 citizens.
Many protesters directly targeted Macron, who has only 18 months left in power and is enduring his lowest-ever popularity ratings. Some placards urged him to resign, and demonstrators in the southern city of Nice threw an effigy of Macron into the air. Sophie Larchet, a 60-year-old civil servant, said she came to protest in Paris because of Macron. “We’ve had enough, he’s tormenting France,” she said.
Herve Renard, a 57-year-old union activist, referring to France’s former emperor, said: “Macron-Napoleon is listening to no one.” Many complained about a widening gap between ordinary people and the elite, stating that a series of austerity measures proposed by the government would hit the poorest the hardest. “Every day the richest get richer and the poor get poorer,” Bruno Cavalier, 64, said in Lyon, France’s third-largest city. He carried a placard reading “Smile, you are being taxed.”
‘Thousands of Strikes’
Protesters remain angered by the draft budget of Lecornu’s predecessor, Francois Bayrou, who had proposed a series of measures he said would save 44 billion euros ($52 billion). Lecornu has attempted to calm the anger by promising to abolish lifelong privileges for former prime ministers and halt a widely detested plan to scrap two public holidays.
More than 80,000 police officers have been deployed, supported by drones, armored vehicles, and water cannons. Over 180 people have been detained. In a rare show of unity among unions calling for strikes, about one in six teachers at primary and secondary schools walked out, while nine out of ten pharmacies were shuttered. Commuters faced severe disruption on the Paris Metro, where only the three driverless automated lines were functioning normally. Trade unions expressed satisfaction 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.”
