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<\/p>\nThe disruption gave loud voice to widespread complaints that eight years of leadership by France\u2019s business-friendly president have benefited too few people and hurt too many.<\/p>\n
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Marching with thousands of other protesters in Paris, hospital nurse Aya Tour\u00e9 put her finger on the pulse of many who took to streets across France on Thursday Sept. 18 against the government of President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n
\u201cFed up. Really, really fed up<\/em>,\u201d she said. \u201cThose people governing us, they have no clue about real-life issues. We are paying the price<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Strikes that hobbled the Paris Metro and disrupted other services, coupled with nationwide demonstrations that saw sporadic clashes with police who fired volleys of tear gas, gave loud voice to widespread complaints that eight years of leadership by France\u2019s business-friendly president have benefited too few people and hurt too many.<\/p>\n The day of upheaval for the European Union\u2019s second-largest economy aimed to turn up the heat on new Prime Minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu and his boss, Macron. They\u2019re engaged in an intensifying battle both in parliament and on the streets about how to plug holes in France\u2019s finances, with opponents fighting proposals to cut spending on public services that underpin the French way of life.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how it\u2019s even possible to consider making cost savings<\/em>,\u201d said Clara Simon, a history student who marched in the crowd of demonstrators in Paris, brandishing a poster that read: \u201cUniversity in danger<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s already no money for soaps in the toilets, no money to fix a seat when it\u2019s broken<\/em>,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m angry because the economic and social situation in France is deteriorating every year<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Macron\u2019s opponents complain that taxpayer-funded public services \u2013 free schools and public hospitals, subsidized health care, unemployment benefits and other safety nets that are cherished in France \u2013 are being eroded by his governments that have lurched from crisis to crisis since he dissolved parliament in 2024, triggering a legislative election that stacked Parliament\u2019s lower house with critics of the president.<\/p>\n Left-wing parties and their supporters want the wealthy and businesses to pay more to help rein in France\u2019s debts, rather than see public spending cuts that they contend will hit low-paid and middle-class workers. Placards at the Paris demonstration read: \u201cTax the rich<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to find money where there\u2019s money<\/em>,\u201d said Pierre Courois, a 65-year-old retired civil servant. \u201cFrance\u2019s deficit is an issue, but it\u2019s not by cutting on public services that you fix it<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Many complained about mounting poverty, sharpening inequality and struggles to make ends meet.<\/p>\n \u201cOur pay is stuck, colleagues are leaving, and wards are closing beds<\/em>,\u201d said 34-year-old public hospital nurse Stephane Lambert. \u201cFor us it\u2019s the same story: less money in our pockets, fewer hands to help, more pressure every day<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n At a before-dawn protest at a Paris bus depot, striking transportation worker Nadia Belhoum said people are \u201cbeing squeezed like a lemon even if there\u2019s no more juice<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n As he seeks support for belt-tightening, Lecornu has trimmed lifetime benefits for former government ministers \u2013 a largely symbolic first step that won\u2019t generate huge savings \u2013 and scrapped wildly unpopular proposals to eliminate two public holidays, a measure intended to spur revenue. He has been meeting opposition leaders and labour unions to try to build consensus for a budget, but his close relationship with Macron puts him in the firing line, too.<\/p>\n \u201cBringing in Lecornu doesn\u2019t transform anything \u2013 he\u2019s just another man in a suit who will follow Macron\u2019s line<\/em>,\u201d said 22-year-old student Juliette Martin.<\/p>\n On his first day in office last week, anti-government protests saw streets choked with smoke, barricades in flames and volleys of tear gas as demonstrators denounced budget cuts and political turmoil. That \u201cBlock Everything<\/em>\u201d campaign became a prelude for Thursday\u2019s even larger demonstrations.<\/p>\n \u201cFor decades we\u2019ve been the ones paying for the rich, paying for the billionaires, paying for the capitalists and they\u2019ve emptied our pockets<\/em>,\u201d automobile factory union representative Jean Pierre Mercier said. \u201cAnd today, supposedly, we need to repay the debt, and once again it\u2019s only the workers who are asked to pay, whether we\u2019re employed, disabled, or retired<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n The first whiffs of police tear gas came before daybreak, with scuffles between riot officers and protesters in Paris. The collapse of successive governments \u2013 brought down by votes in parliament \u2013 that sought to push through savings has given Macron\u2019s critics a sense of momentum. The \u201cBlock Everything<\/em>\u201d campaign that developed online before taking to the streets also added to the climate of crisis.<\/p>\n As it did last week, the government said it was again deploying police in exceptionally large numbers \u2013 about 80,000 in all \u2013 to keep order on Sept 18. Police were ordered to break up blockades and other efforts to prevent people who weren\u2019t protesting from going about their business.<\/p>\n Paris police used tear gas to disperse a before-dawn blockade of a bus depot and deployed in force, backed by armoured vehicles and firing more gas, at the afternoon march in the capital. French broadcasters also reported sporadic clashes in the western cities of Nantes and Rennes, and Lyon in the southeast, with volleys of police tear gas and projectiles targeting officers.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bourgeoisie of this country have been gorging themselves, they don\u2019t even know what to do with their money anymore. So if there is indeed a crisis, the question is who should pay for it<\/em>,\u201d said Fabien Villedieu, a leader of the SUD-Rail train workers union. \u201cWe are asking that the government\u2019s austerity plan that consists of making the poorest in this country always pay \u2013 whether they are employees, retirees, students \u2013 ends and that we make the richest in this country pay<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n The Interior Ministry reported 181 arrests nationwide as the afternoon ended and more than 450,000 demonstrators outside Paris, with protests in big cities and small towns. Paris police said that another 55,000 people marched in the capital. Participation estimates from the CGT, among unions that called the strikes and demonstrations, were double those of police, reporting more than 1 million strikers and protesters nationwide.<\/p>\n The Paris Metro operator said that rush-hour services suffered fewer disruptions than anticipated, but that traffic largely stopped outside those hours except on three driverless automated lines.<\/p>\n French national rail company SNCF said that \u201ca few disruptions<\/em>\u201d were expected on high-speed trains to France and Europe, but most will run.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time there\u2019s a protest, it feels like daily life is held hostage<\/em>,\u201d said office worker Nathalie Laurent, grappling with morning disruptions on the Paris Metro.<\/p>\n \u201cLecornu \u2013 he\u2019s only just started, but if this is his idea of stability, then he has a long way to go<\/em>,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n yogaesoteric <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The disruption gave loud voice to widespread complaints that eight years of leadership by France\u2019s business-friendly president have benefited too few people and hurt too many. Marching with thousands of other protesters in Paris, hospital nurse Aya Tour\u00e9 put her finger on the pulse of many who took to streets across France on Thursday Sept. 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\nSeptember 19, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n