France faced another nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations on Thursday, as labor unions, university students and high school pupils rallied in some 260 cities and towns across the country over the rising cost of living, wages, public services and the policies of President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 70,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed nationwide, backed by armored vehicles, drones and helicopters, ahead of more than 220 planned protest actions. He vowed an extremely firm response to any outbreaks of violence. France’s domestic intelligence service expected 500,000 to 700,000 people to join demonstrations outside Paris, with tens of thousands more expected in the capital.
The mobilization was called by France’s main unions, including the CGT, CFDT and Force Ouvrière, with more than 1,100 strike notices filed. Railway workers, hospital staff and public-sector employees joined the strike, extending the protests well beyond the education system. In a joint statement, the unions warned that France is on the brink of recession and that prices for fuel, food, rent and energy are rising while wages and pensions are not.
Clashes broke out in Paris in the morning, as hundreds of students from several high schools blocked Rue de Rivoli with garbage bins before police moved in to disperse them. Le Monde reported that a student and a teacher were injured. Police also intervened outside Lycée Hélène Boucher in eastern Paris after students blocked its entrance. Attempts to block schools were reported in Strasbourg and Bordeaux, and Europe 1 reported that 81 high schools had been blocked nationwide by 10 a.m.
Near Toulouse, a group of masked individuals entered the Marie-Louise-Dissard-Françoise high school in Tournefeuille at around 7:45 a.m. and set fire to its administrative office. The school was evacuated and closed for the day. The fire was contained, and no injuries were reported. A court in Toulouse upheld a ban on protests in the city center.
The main Paris march was set to proceed from Place de la République to Place de la Nation, after a court upheld the police decision to reject the unions’ preferred route from Bastille to Concorde.
Authorities are concerned that violent groups could exploit the demonstrations to attack businesses and public buildings. On October 31, 779 people were arrested across France, and 36 businesses were damaged, three of them looted, according to French authorities. Since mid-October, 4,914 people have been detained for questioning, and the justice minister said 329 have been sent to prison following expedited trials. Security forces are expected to remain on high alert into the evening amid fears of rioting.
The protests began in September as a student-led movement demanding education reforms and have since grown into a broader challenge to Macron’s government, marking France’s worst civil unrest in years.
