French Police Make 295 Arrests In Clashes With Protesters While Macron Installs New PM
10 Sept 2025 11:53 PM IST10 Sept 2025 11:53 PM IST
The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron in both his first and ongoing second term as president
This photograph shows the reflection of a person passing by a trash container set ablaze by demonstrators at the end of a demonstration at the Place de la Republique square part of the "Bloquons tout" ("Let's block everything") protest movement, in Paris, on September 10, 2025. The broad anti-government campaign, dubbed "Bloquons tout" ("Let's block everything"), calls for a shutdown of France on September 10 with a string of protest actions and civil disobedience around the country, while the handover of power between the new Prime Minister and his predecessor, who suffered a crushing loss in a confidence vote on September 8, is scheduled for the same day at noon. — AFP
Paris: Protesters blocked roads, lit blazes and were met with volleys of tear gas on Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, heaping pressure on President Emmanuel Macron and making new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu 's first day in office a baptism of fire.
The government's interior ministry announced 295 arrests in the first hours of what was a planned day of nationwide demonstrations against Macron, budget cuts and other complaints.
Although falling short of its self-declared intention to Block Everything, the protest movement that started online 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 that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes. In the southwest, fire damage to electrical cables stopped train services on one line and disrupted traffic on another, government transport authorities said.
Spreading protests
The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron in both his first and ongoing second term as president. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice in 2018-2019.
After his reelection in 2022, Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris' outskirts.
Nevertheless, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.
Macron was installing Lecornu as prime minister on Tuesday, and the protests immediately presented him with a challenge.
( Source : PTI )
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