Protesters blocked roads, set blazes and were met with volleys of police tear gas Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, seeking to heap pressure on President Emmanuel Macron by attempting to give his new prime minister a baptism of fire.
The interior minister announced nearly 200 arrests in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide protests.
Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online and gathered steam over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly made arrests.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes and that damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the southwest. He alleged that protesters were attempting to create “a climate of insurrection.”
Protesters clashed with police early Wednesday in Paris, where garbage bins were set on fire, as the government deployed an exceptional 80,000 police for a day of nationwide action under the slogan “Block Everything.”
The protesters, angry at French President Emmanuel Macron over his leadership and austerity policies, are planning to disrupt activity across the country.
The Paris police prefecture said 75 people had already been detained by 9 a.m., with demonstrations and blockades expected to continue throughout the day.
Two days after François Bayrou was ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary confidence vote and replaced on Tuesday by Sébastien Lecornu, thousands of protesters responded to online calls to disrupt the country.
The “Bloquons Tout” (Block Everything) movement had gathered momentum on social media and in encrypted chats over the summer. Its call for a day of blockades, strikes, demonstrations, and other acts of protest comes as Macron — one of the movement’s main targets — installed his fourth prime minister in 12 months.
The movement, which has grown virally with no clear identified leadership, has a broad array of demands — many targeting contested belt-tightening budget plans that Bayrou championed before his demise — as well as broader complaints about inequality.
Calls online for strikes, boycotts, blockades and other forms of protest on Wednesday have been accompanied with appeals to avoid violence.
The spontaneity of “Block Everything” is reminiscent of the “Yellow Vest” movement that rocked Macron’s first term as president. It started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests. It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Macron’s leadership.
