Paris: Hundreds of thousands of trade union members joined nationwide strikes and demonstrations Thursday to demand higher wages and support the high school protest movement, piling fresh pressure on the beleaguered government.
After more than a month of large, recurring protests across France, major rallies took place again in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and elsewhere.
An official close to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said that by early afternoon around 270,000 people had joined the union action in 180 rallies outside of the capital, and that most of them were peaceful.
The official, however, noted some violence in the cities of Lyon, Nantes, Pau, Orleans, Rennes and Toulouse.
Students also held fresh protests. About a third of France’s high schools were closed or unable to operate, some because of student blockades and others because teachers were on strike. Public transportation was heavily disrupted. Police in the northeastern city of Strasbourg urged people to exercise extreme caution near certain schools.
The Eiffel Tower was also closed.
The atmosphere was joyful and relaxed despite heavy security at the capital’s Place de la Republique, where Thursday’s march was due to begin in the early afternoon. Rioters had clashed with police there during protests marred by looting October 17.
Protesters carrying trade union flags gathered as hundreds of musicians played string, brass and percussion instruments, accompanied by singers.
Police are prepared but violence flares again
Nunez said that 70,000 police officers were being deployed, backed by armoured vehicles, drones and helicopters. Police have been criticised for injuring protesters with heavy-handed tactics.
Many demonstrations have been marred by violence, much of it committed by masked rioters who do not support the students’ or workers’ demands.
Authorities in the western region of Brittany said “masked individuals” tried to block roads in Rennes Thursday. They said young people, often accompanied by adults, committed “serious acts of violence,” including throwing steel balls at police.
Unions aim to send a warning
France’s main unions warned that the country is on the brink of recession and that layoff plans are multiplying. “Fuel, food products, rent, gas, electricity everything’s going up except wages and pensions,” they said in a joint statement.
France is mired in debt and is one of the worst economic performers in Europe, along with Italy and Belgium.
The unions put President Emmanuel Macron’s government and employers on notice.
“Anger is immense,” they said. “The situation in this country is fragile. The pressing social and environmental challenges must be addressed without delay.”
Fabien Villedieu, national secretary of the SUD-Rail union, took aim at the government and the French rail company, SNCF.
“When the government is not reasonable, when the head of the SNCF is not reasonable – bosses in general are not reasonable – and when they’re not reasonable, we simply do what we’ve always done in France, which is to go on strike,” he told The Associated Press at the Gare de Lyon station in Paris.
Before the strike action, the government had been negotiating with unions – a familiar scenario in French politics – in hopes of limiting the rioting, which has resulted in France’s worst civil unrest in years.
Protests are drawn into election campaigning
The movement began in September with a protest over staff shortages at a high school southeast of Paris and spread nationwide. It drew students demanding more education funding and workers seeking better pensions and help with soaring fuel prices and other costs.
The rallies come as the campaign to succeed Macron as president next May heats up, with political parties seeking to capitalise on the movement. Macron is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is the favourite to win.
Some candidates, including veteran far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, propose radical solutions that appear difficult to implement, said Paul Smith, an associate professor of French history and politics at the University of Nottingham in England.
“There is a sense of absolute frustration at the government’s failure to operate,” Smith said in an interview. “Whoever wins the presidential election is going to have a stack of problems to cope with.