NATES/PARIS (Reuters)-Protesters from all over France interrupted traffic, burned dumpsters, and sometimes clashed with police on Wednesday on an attempt to “block everything” in a demonstration of anger against President Emmanuel Macron, political stablishment and planned budget cuts.
Members of security forces that had been mobilized across the country removed the blockages as soon as possible, the authorities said, which means that France was not, for now, blocked, despite some disorders. About 300 protesters were arrested.
Many protesters have expressed their wrath against Macron, who is already facing political turbulence after parliamentary opposition joined to defeat his government on Monday.
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The president appointed a close ally as his new Prime Minister, the conservative Sébastien Leconnu, who took office on Wednesday facing the same challenge as his predecessor to control France’s growing debt.
“It’s the same thing, the problem is Macron, not the ministers,” said Fred, representative of the CGT union RATP public transportation industry, in a protest in Paris. “He has to leave.”
In Paris, police fired tear gas at young people blocked the entry of a high school and firefighters removed burnt objects from a barricade.
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Police said they had prevented a large group of about 1,000 protesters from entering the Gare du Nord train station in the city.
“I was expecting a dissolution (from Parliament) or a leftist prime minister and we have none of both, it is frustrating,” said 18-year-old student Lisa Venier, who was among protesters near Gare Du Nord.
Protesters set fire to a bus in the city of Rennes, in the west of the country, the interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, told reporters. He also said that some protesters attacked the police with heavy stones, but did not specify where.
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Retailleau warned that the protest demonstrations scheduled for the end of the day could be infiltrated by radical and ultra -esquated groups and become violent.
The “block everything” movement-a wide expression of discontent that has no centralized leadership and is organized on social media-emerged online in May between right-wing groups, according to researchers and authorities, but has since been assumed on the left and extreme left.
The movement reflects popular discontent with what protesters consider a dysfunctional ruling elite that preaches a painful austerity primer. It is being compared to protests in the 2018 “yellow vests”, which emerged due to the increase in fuel prices, but became a broader movement against Macron and its economic reform plans.
