{"id":145130,"date":"2025-09-18T09:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/145130\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:44:09","slug":"frances-biggest-strike-in-years-under-way-amid-political-crisis-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/145130\/","title":{"rendered":"France\u2019s biggest strike in years under way amid political crisis | France"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teachers, transport workers, hospital staff, pharmacists and public sector workers have gone on strike in France, as trade unions make a rare show of unity to put pressure on the new prime minister, S\u00e9bastien Lecornu<\/a>, to rethink budget cuts and act on wages, pensions and public services.<\/p>\n

About 800,000 people were expected to join marches across the country on Thursday, in what was expected to be one of the biggest strike days in years. Schools, rail and air transport were affected. Up to 80,000 police were deployed across France<\/a> from the early morning.<\/p>\n

By 7am, several bus depots had been blockaded in Paris and northern France, as well as high school blockades in the east of the capital and Amiens in the Somme and Le Havre in Normandy. Rail transport was disrupted across France.<\/p>\n

A total of 250 marches were planned nationwide as trade unions led demonstrations.<\/p>\n

It is expected to be the biggest day of demonstrations since 2023, when large numbers took to the streets<\/a> to protest against the use of executive powers to push through Emmanuel Macron\u2019s raising of the French pension age to 64 without a vote in parliament.<\/p>\n

Lecornu must address the anger felt in France, said Perrine Mohr of the moderate CFDT trade union in the northern Hauts-de-France region, speaking on local public radio, Ici<\/a>. She said since Macron came to power in 2017, \u201cwe have had a government that is pro-business, with tax relief and unconditional assistance to businesses. What we\u2019re asking is that the future government is more pro-workers and pro-citizens\u201d.<\/p>\n

A CGT labour union balloon is seen as protesters attend a demonstration in Nantes on Thursday. Photograph: St\u00e9phane Mah\u00e9\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The day of demonstrations comes at a time of political crisis<\/a> in France after Macron last week named his close ally Lecornu as the third prime minister in a year \u2013 after the previous two, Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou<\/a> and Michel Barnier<\/a> \u2013 were ousted by parliament amid bitter disagreements over the budget.<\/p>\n

Lecornu, who begins his term in office with very low popularity ratings for a new prime minister, had served as defence minister in the previous two ousted governments and is struggling to convince opposition parties that he is bringing anything new, despite promising a \u201cprofound break\u201d<\/a> with past politics.<\/p>\n

Lecornu was appointed after his centrist predecessor, Bayrou, lost a confidence vote on 8 September over his unpopular plan for a \u20ac44bn (\u00a338bn) budget squeeze and austerity programme to reduce France\u2019s public debt.<\/p>\n

S\u00e9bastien Lecornu was appointed prime minister after his predecessor lost a confidence vote. Photograph: Ludovic Marin\/Reuters<\/p>\n

He has said he will ditch Bayrou\u2019s unpopular proposal to scrap two public holidays. But trade unions are concerned that other elements of Bayrou\u2019s budget cuts, such as a freeze on most welfare spending, could be maintained.<\/p>\n

Lecornu has only weeks to come up with a budget text and form another minority government. He has to avoid any budget being immediately rejected by opposition parties, which could call a vote of no confidence and oust him from office.<\/p>\n

Since Macron called a sudden snap election<\/a> in June 2024, the French parliament has been split between the left, the far-right and the centre with no absolute majority. This has resulted in repeated deadlock over the budget.<\/p>\n

Police remove rubbish bins installed by protesters to block a street in Paris on Thursday. Photograph: Tom Nicholson\/Reuters<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Lecornu met opposition parties as he consulted on the budget before appointing a new government. The 39-year-old\u2019s background was on the traditional right before he joined Macron\u2019s centrists, and he is likely to keep in place any new government\u2019s cooperation with the traditional rightwing party, Les R\u00e9publicains, as well as maintaining Macron\u2019s legacy of pro-business economic policy.<\/p>\n

But if Lecornu is to avoid being ousted in a no-confidence vote, he is under pressure to find some way of appealing to the Socialist party, so observers believe they may at least agree a non-aggression pact not to immediately vote to oust him.<\/p>\n

The Socialists met Lecornu on Wednesday and called for \u201can end to harsh budget cuts\u201d saying they wanted \u201cfair contributions from the wealthiest\u201d and more policies to help French people make ends meet.<\/p>\n

But the leftwing delegation emerged saying Lecornu had not said much about his plans. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what he says in the coming days,\u201d the Socialist leader, Olivier Faure, told reporters. Faure said if Lecornu was not willing to listen the Socialists could join a future no-confidence vote to oust him.<\/p>\n

Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally<\/a> party, a key opposition force, emerged from a separate meeting with Lecornu saying: \u201cIf he continues the same politics, he\u2019ll fall.\u201d<\/p>\n

France is under pressure to lower a budget deficit of nearly double the EU\u2019s 3% ceiling, and a debt pile equivalent to 114% of GDP.<\/p>\n

The Fitch rating agency downgraded France\u2019s credit rating last week, amid concerns over political instability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teachers, transport workers, hospital staff, pharmacists and public sector workers have gone on strike in France, as trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-145130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}