PARIS — Protesters hit France with transport strikes, notably hobbling the Paris Metro, demonstrations and traffic slowdowns and blockades Thursday, pitting the power of the streets against President Emmanuel Macron ‘s government and its proposals to cut funding for public services that underpin the French way of life.
The first whiffs of police teargas came before daybreak, with scuffles between riot officers and protesters in Paris. Nationwide demonstrations, from France’s biggest cities to small towns, were expected to mobilize hundreds of thousands of marchers, voicing anger about mounting poverty, sharpening inequality and struggles for low-paid workers and others to make ends meet.
“We say ‘no’ to the government. We’ve had enough. There’s no more money, a high cost of living,” striking transport worker Nadia Belhoum said at a before-dawn protest targeting a Paris bus depot. She described “people agonizing, being squeezed like a lemon even if there’s no more juice.”
Labor unions that called strikes are pushing for the abandonment of proposed budget cuts, social welfare freezes and other belt-tightening that opponents contend will further hit the pockets of low-paid and middle-class workers and which triggered the collapse of successive governments that sought to push through savings.
Opponents of Macron’s business-friendly leadership complain that taxpayer-funded public services — free schools and public hospitals, subsidized health care, unemployment benefits and other safety nets that are cherished in France — are being eroded. Left-wing parties and their supporters want the wealthy and businesses to pay more, rather than see spending cuts to plug holes in France’s finances and to rein in its debts.
“Public service is falling apart,” said teacher Claudia Nunez. “It’s always the same people who pay.”
The day of upheaval — with strikes also impacting schools, industry and other sectors of the European Union’s second-largest economy — aimed to turn up the heat on new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Macron appointed him last week, tasking Lecornu with building parliamentary support for belt-tightening that brought down his predecessors.
“Bringing in Lecornu doesn’t change anything — he’s just another man in a suit who will follow Macron’s line,” said 22-year-old student Juliette Martin.
“We want our voices heard. People my age feel like no one in politics is speaking for us,” she said. “It’s always our generation that ends up with the insecurity and the debt.”
Unions have decried budget proposals by Macron’s minority governments, weakened by their lack of a dependable majority in parliament, as brutal and punitive for workers, retirees and others who are vulnerable.
“The bourgeoisie of this country have been gorging themselves, they don’t even know what to do with their money anymore. So if there is indeed a crisis, the question is who should pay for it,” said Fabien Villedieu, a leader of the SUD-Rail train workers union. “We are asking that the government’s austerity plan that consists of making the poorest in this country always pay — whether they are employees, retirees, students — ends and that we make the richest in this country pay.”
Striking rail workers waving flares made a brief foray into the Paris headquarters of the Economics Ministry, leaving trails of smoke in the air before leaving.
Macron’s opponents also continue to denounce unpopular pension reforms that he railroaded through parliament and which raised the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, triggering a firestorm of anger and rounds of protest earlier in what is his second and last term as president, which ends in 2027.
The government said it was deploying police in exceptionally large numbers — about 80,000 in all — to keep order. Police were ordered to break up traffic blockades and other efforts to prevent people who weren’t protesting from going about their business. Paris police used tear gas to disperse a before-dawn blockade of a bus depot. French broadcasters also reported sporadic clashes in the cites of Nantes, in the west, and Lyon in the southeast, with volleys of police tear gas and projectiles targeting officers.
The Interior Ministry reported 94 arrests nationwide by midday.
“Every time there’s a protest, it feels like daily life is held hostage,” said office worker Nathalie Laurent, grappling with disruptions on the Paris Metro during her morning commute.
“You can feel the frustration in the air. People are tired,” she said. “It’s not very democratic when ordinary people can’t even do their jobs. And Lecornu — he’s only just started, but if this is his idea of stability, then he has a long way to go. We don’t need big speeches, we need to feel that someone in government understands what this chaos means for us.”
The Paris Metro operator said rush-hour services suffered fewer disruptions than anticipated but that traffic largely stopped outside those hours except on three driverless automated lines.
French national rail company SNCF said “a few disruptions” were expected on high-speed trains to France and Europe, but most will run.
Regional rail lines, as well as the Paris Metro and commuter trains, will be more severely impacted.
In airports, only few disruptions are anticipated as the main air traffic controllers union decided to postponed its call for a strike pending the appointment of a new Cabinet.
Last week, a day of anti-government action across France saw streets choked with smoke, barricades in flames and volleys of tear gas as protesters denounced budget cuts and political turmoil.
Although falling short of its self-declared intention of total disruption, the “Block Everything” campaign still managed to paralyze parts of daily life and ignite hundreds of hot spots across the country.
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Associated Press journalists Sylvie Corbet, Michael Euler, Oleg Cetinic and Yesica Brumec in Paris contributed.
