By Stephane Mahe and Juliette Jabkhiro
NANTES/PARIS (Reuters) – Protesters across France obstructed highways, burned barricades and clashed sporadically with police on Wednesday in a show of anger against President Emmanuel Macron, the political elite and planned spending cuts.
Authorities deployed more than 80,000 security personnel across the country, removing barriers and containing unrest as tensions flared in several places.
In Paris, riot police periodically used teargas to disperse crowds. Almost 200 people were detained in the capital.
The “Block Everything” movement – a broad expression of discontent that has spread on social media – sprang up online in May among right-wing groups but has since been co-opted by the left and far-left.
The unrest added to the political turmoil on a day when conservative Sebastien Lecornu took office as President Emmanuel Macron’s new prime minister, after his predecessor was ousted by parliament over his unpopular plans for sharp budget cuts.
“It’s the same shit, it’s the same, it’s Macron who’s the problem, not the ministers,” said Fred, a CGT union official at the Paris public transport company RATP. “He has to go.”
France is under pressure to lower a budget deficit that stands at nearly double the European Union’s 3% ceiling, and a debt pile equivalent to 114% of GDP.
In Paris, students and school age youngsters swelled the protesters’ ranks. Nearly 300 protesters were arrested across the country, though many rallies were peaceful.
The movement reflects anger with what protesters say is a dysfunctional ruling elite bent on austerity – the discontent deepened after the last government proposed cuts of 44 billion euros ($52 billion) in government spending.
Outside the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, hundreds of youths chanted anti-Macron slogans. One carried a placard with the Tricolor flag and the slogan “The rich elite’s Republic”.
“We’ve come to make some noise,” said Sorbonne student Emma Meguerditchian, 17. “We want them to know we can’t take this any more, we want another type of government.”
ANGER OVER BUDGET CUTS
In the west, protesters in Nantes blocked a highway with burning tires and bins. Police used teargas to disperse people trying to occupy a roundabout. In Rennes, a bus was torched.
In Montpellier, in the south, police fired teargas at protesters who had set up a barricade to block traffic at a roundabout. A large banner at the site read: “Macron resign”.
Paris police fired teargas at youths blocking the entrance to a high school and firefighters removed burnt bicycles and trash cans from numerous barricades. Scuffles broke out on the fringes of an otherwise peaceful protest near the Chatelet shopping mall in the centre of the capital.
The ‘Block Everything’ movement has drawn comparisons with the ‘Yellow Vest’ rebellion that erupted in 2018-2019 over taxes and the cost of living and forced Macron to make policy concessions costing billions of euros.
However, sociologist Antoine Bristielle at the Jean Jaures Foundation think tank noted a generational divide between the two.
“In the ‘Yellow Vest’ movement, we had a rather vulnerable France that was struggling to make ends meet, a lot of workers, a lot of retirees. Whereas here, in terms of age, it’s many young people,” Bristielle said.
They have “a certain vision of the world where there is more social justice, less inequality and a political system that functions differently, better.”
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(Reporting by Lucien Libert, Makini Brice, Juliette Jabkhiro, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Mathias de Rozario and Abdul Saboor in Paris, Stephane Mahe in Nantes, Manon Cruz in Montpellier; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Frances Kerry and Jon Boyle)
