France is braced for one of its biggest strike days in recent years, as trade unions make a rare show of unity to put pressure on the new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to rethink budget cuts and act on wages, pensions and public services, reports The Guardian.
About 800,000 people are expected to take to the streets in marches across the country on Thursday, according to police, while schools, rail and air transport will all be affected. A total of 80,000 police will be deployed.
It is expected to be the biggest day of demonstrations since 2023, when large numbers took to the streets to protest against the use of executive powers to push through Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular raising of the French pension age to 64 without a vote in parliament.
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. She said that since Macron came to power in 2017, “we have had a government that is pro-business, with tax relief and unconditional assistance to businesses. What we’re asking is that the future government is more pro-workers and pro-citizens.”
The day of demonstrations comes at a time of political crisis in France after Macron last week named his close ally Lecornu as the third prime minister in a year – after the previous two, François Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were ousted by parliament amid bitter disagreements over the budget.
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 “profound break” with past politics.
Lecornu was appointed after his centrist predecessor, Bayrou, lost a confidence vote on 8 September over his unpopular plan for a €44bn (£38bn) budget squeeze and austerity programme to reduce France’s public debt. Lecornu has said he would ditch Bayrou’s deeply unpopular proposal to scrap two public holidays.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.