PARIS: Teachers, train drivers, pharmacists and hospital staff went on strike Thursday, and teenagers blocked entrances to high schools across France in nationwide protests against planned budget cuts.
Unions called for scrapping the previous government’s fiscal plans, more spending on public services, higher taxes on the wealthy and a reversal of a change that makes people work longer to receive a pension. The walkouts disrupted transit and classes in major cities, including Paris.
In the capital, many metro lines were set to be suspended for much of the day except during rush hours, officials said. Students gathered to block some school entrances. “Block your high school against austerity,” read a sign at the Lycée Maurice Ravel, where teachers and labor representatives joined the crowd.
“Workers are currently so despised by this government and by President Emmanuel Macron that it can’t continue like this,” bus driver and CGT union representative Fred said outside the school. “I am here to defend public services,” said Gaetan Legay, a 33-year-old teacher, adding that public money should go “back into public services ... rather than to large companies or as tax gifts to the ultra-rich.”
Macron and newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu face pressure from parliament over likely budget cuts and from investors concerned about the deficit in the eurozone’s second-largest economy.
Workers angry over fiscal plans
An Interior Ministry source said as many as 800,000 people were expected to take part in strikes and protests. “The workers we represent are angry,” major unions said in a joint statement rejecting the previous government’s “brutal” and “unfair” fiscal plans.
France’s budget deficit last year was close to double the European Union’s 3% ceiling. Even as he seeks to reduce it, Lecornu—who must rely on other parties to pass legislation—faces a difficult path to assemble support for a 2026 budget. His predecessor, Francois Bayrou, was ousted by parliament last week over a plan to cut 44 billion euros. Lecornu has not said whether he will keep that plan but has signaled a willingness to compromise.
Protests hit schools, trains
The FSU-SNUipp union said one in three primary school teachers were on strike nationwide, and nearly one in two in Paris. Regional trains were heavily affected, though most high-speed lines operated, officials said. Protesters briefly slowed traffic on a highway near Toulon.
Nuclear output at utility EDF was slightly lower, down 1.1 gigawatts early Thursday, company data showed, as workers reduced power at the Flamanville 1 reactor.
Pharmacists protested changes affecting their business, and the USPO pharmacists’ union said a survey of members found 98% could close for the day. The farmers’ union Confederation Paysanne also called for mobilization.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said police removed several blockades, including at bus depots in the Paris region, and warned that up to 8,000 violent agitators could try to clash with police. Authorities planned to deploy about 80,000 police and gendarmes, with riot units, drones and armored vehicles available. More than 20 people had been arrested, police said.
Plans to move the 70-meter-long Bayeux tapestry, whose stitching depicts the 1066 Norman invasion, were delayed because of the strike, the local prefecture said. The tapestry is set to be loaned to Britain.
