France On Fire: Macron under pressure

Authorities deployed 80,000 police, who made hundreds of arrests and fired tear gas to disperse crowds . The unrest adds to turmoil after the collapse of the government over proposed budget cuts.

PARIS (Team Newsbuddy) — Protesters set fires as they blocked highways and gas stations across France early Wednesday as part of a new nationwide movement. Authorities deployed 80,000 police, who made hundreds of arrests and fired tear gas to disperse crowds.
The “Block Everything” movement was born online over the summer in far-right circles, but spread on social media and was co-opted by left-wing, antifascist and anarchist groups. It now includes France’s far-left parties and the country’s powerful labor unions.
Their joint day of unrest adds to the country’s political turmoil, after the collapse of centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s government earlier this week in a similar backlash over proposed budget cuts and broader anger at the political class.
Barricades were erected in several major French cities, including Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse. Entry to an Amazon depot in northern France was also blocked as the country’s largest union said some 715 disruptions had been organized nationwide.
A bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes, according to Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. In the southwest, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services and traffic, government transport authorities said.
In the capital Paris, groups gathered and set up barricades at several entry points to the city. Demonstrations were expected to continue throughout the day, with travel disrupted as some of the main transport unions joined the strike.
Hundreds remained gathered outside Gare du Nord, one of the city’s main train stations, despite earlier attempts from police to disperse the crowds with tear gas.
“We are here, even if Macron doesn’t want us, we are here,” they chanted.
There were dramatic scenes outside a high school in eastern Paris, where police clashed with dozens of students who had blocked entry to the building.
Police forced the opening of one of the doors to let students in and there was some violence with tear gas,” Ariane Anemoyannis, spokesperson for the youth group ‘Le Poing Leve,’ who was at the scene, said.
An earlier strike, organized by transport workers near the high school, was also broken up by police, said Anemoyannis.
“There were several hundred people who showed up in support of the workers,” she said, “the police charged against the picketline to break up the strike.”
Public anger in France grew when then-Prime Minister Francois Bayrou announced his plan to cut the budget by over $50 billion. He proposed striking two national holidays from the calendar, freezing pensions for 2026 and cutting billions in health spending.
The two extremes of the political spectrum joined forces in the National Assembly on Monday, causing the collapse of the French government in a no confidence vote fueled by opposition to the budget cuts.