Strikes and demonstrations on Thursday against Emmanuel Macron's proposed reform of France's pensions system, which includes raising the age of retirement on full rights from 62 to 64 by 2030, brought more than 2 million people onto streets across France, according to trade unions, while interior ministry figures estimated turnout at 1.12 million.
There were skirmishes with police on Saturday as Kurdish protestors gathered in central Paris for a demonstration in protest at the killing of three people, and the wounding of several others, on Friday at a Kurd community centre, for which a 69-yeare-old former French train driver has been detained and placed in a psychiatric unit.
While there are hundreds of thousands of water reservoirs used by farmers across France, what has prompted angry protests by environmentalist activists, dismised as 'eco-terrorists' by France's interior minister, is the size of the latest ones and the source of the water they collect.
A union-led, nationwide day of strike action and street protests on Tuesday to push demands for better pay in face of rampant inflation drew a turnout of around 300,000 according to organisers - almost 120,000 according to the interior ministry -, including transport workers, teachers and postal staff, as developing social unrest over the cost-of-living crisis proves to be the first major challenge for Emmanuel Macron's second term in office.
French health workers have held a day of protest to demand better pay and increased resources, including higher staff numbers, as fears grow over the capacity of hospitals around the country, and notably A&E units, to cope with patient demand this summer.
Anti-French sentiment is gaining ground across a number of West African countries, where the presence of the former colonial power, engaged in fighting armed jihadist insurgents across the Sahel, is challenged by growing Russian influence and popular anger against its history of support for strongman regimes. Protests against France’s military presence in the region have now spilled over into Chad, France’s key African ally, governed by a junta, where last month French nationals were targeted in the capital N’Djamena and petrol stations belonging to oil giant Total were ransacked. Rémi Carayol reports.
More than 50 people were arrested and several hundred fined as a so-called 'freedom convoy' of vehicles reached Paris in protest over France's Covid-19 vaccine pass requirements for access to a number of public venues.
A decision by the nationwide Leclerc supermarket chain to sell baguettes priced at just 29 euro cents has infuriated bread-making professionals who, in a joint statement by bakers, farmers and millers, said the move 'destroys values' and went against attempts to 'pay farmers fairly'.
Macron told relatives and activists on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the bloodshed that "crimes" were committed on the night of 17 October, 1961, under the command of Paris police chief Maurice Papon.
Nationwide protests against the introduction as of Monday in France of the requirement to carry a 'health pass' showing that a person has no coronavirus infection, or has had a double Covid jab, when entering public venues or before boarding trains and planes drew around 237,000 people, according to official estimates.
More than 200,000 people, according to official figures, took part in marches around France this weekend protesting against recently introduced measures which require a person to carry a health pass showing they are free of coronavirus infection or vaccinated before entering a wide range of public venues.
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