A woman who interrupted a press conference by French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen with a protest to draw attention to the far-right leader's closeness with the Kremlin was violently thrown to the ground by private security staff who dragged her across the floor and out of the event by her arm.
The British government said the row between French fishermen and the authorities in Jersey over post-Brexit restrictions on vessels from France operating off the Channel island, and which led to around 60 French boats sailing in protest into the Crown dependency's main port, was 'resolved for now' but that 'we remain on standby'.
The French government has called for the 'immediate release' of Alexei Navalny, principal opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, after he was arrested in Moscow on his return to Russia on Sunday after recovering in Germany from a poisoning attack that nearly killed him.
Staff unions in France representing flight crews and cabin staff working for budget airline Ryanair have accused the Irish company of behaving as if it was in the 'Far West' after it announced it was imposing 20% salary cuts for flight crew and 10% for attendants to weather the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
The French government's spokeswoman called for calm on Wednesday after violent scenes at a demonstration by around 20,000 people on Tuesday evening against what they claim is a cover-up over the 2016 death of Adama Traoré, 24, who suffocated while he was pinned down by gendarmes during his arrest in July 2016, a case which the protesters likened to the killing in the US of George Floyd.
More than 400 doctors, nurses and ancillary staff wore scrubs and banged trays and pans to demand better funding for the Robert Debré hospital, which French media report is in financial difficulty.
As a cross-party parliamentary committee on Monday began to examine the draft pension reform legislation, aimed at merging the country’s 42 separate pension schemes into a points-based “universal” system, self-employed professionals, including lawyers and healthcare practitioners, took to the streets of Paris to protest the planned changes, which they argue will increase their social charges, lower their pension rights and drive many out of business.
Paris Opera dancers, who have a bespoke pension plan dating back to the 17th century, gave an impromptu public performance of Swan Lake on the forecourt of the Palais Garnier in central Paris, with the backing of the Paris Symphony Orchestra, in a protest at President Emmanuel Macron's plan to introduce a universal pension scheme.
Marchers estimated to number 13,500 marched in Paris on Sunday following several recent incidents of Islamophobia in France, including an arson and shooting attack against a mosque in south-west France, while a number of leftwing parties did not take part arguing that organisers opposed the country's constitutional principles regarding secularity.
Firefighters held a march in Paris on Tuesday in protest over working conditions, including low staff numbers, poor pay and inadequate protection against violence increasingly directed against them, when unions claimed a turnout of between 7,000 and 10,000.
Marches in Paris and other cities and towns across France in protest at public spending cuts and reform of the welfare system introduced by President Emmanuel Macron's government drew 300,000 according to labour unions, half as much according to the interior ministry.
Police used tear gas to disperse farmers protesting about the loss of rights for agricultural land who blocked the Tour de France stage on Tuesday with bales of hay and sheep, but the spread of the gas vapours meant several riders needed medical treatment from the doctor’s car at the rear of the peloton.
All of all of the Cannes Film Festival's female jury members, including its leader Cate Blanchett, along with many women actors, directors and producers held a protest on the red-carpeted entrance to the festival's Palis des festivals on Saturday to call for gender parity in the cinema industry, underling that Cannes had since its beginnings awarded 71 male directors with the coveted Golden Palm prize, but has given the honour to just two female directors.
