France hit by protests and disruption as new prime minister takes office

By Saskya Vandoorne, Joseph Ataman, CNN

Paris (CNN) — Nationwide unrest broke out across France on Wednesday as protesters blocked roads, set fires and clashed with police, who responded with tear gas, as anger grows against the country’s political class.

The interior ministry said 295 people had been detained so far, with 80,000 police deployed nationwide, including 6,000 in Paris. The education ministry said around 100 schools were disrupted and 27 fully blockaded.

It comes as the country’s new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, enters office.

Appointed by President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, former defense minister Lecornu succeeds François Bayrou, who was ousted after losing a confidence vote in parliament over his unpopular plan to tame the deficit.

Critics say appointing a Macron loyalist on such a day amounts to a baptism of fire for Lecornu.

The protests – called months ago – are aimed at Macron and the political class.

Early Wednesday, activists launched small but disruptive actions, closing off key ring roads in Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes and Caen.

‘No one listens to us’

In the capital, a CNN team saw protesters obstructing the road outside Gare du Nord, one of Paris’s busiest train stations. Police quickly contained the situation as around 150 mostly young demonstrators chanted anti-police slogans in a largely calm atmosphere.

Elsewhere, groups briefly occupied public buildings.

Adèle Aubert, 27, joined a rally in Paris, telling CNN that she was demonstrating to “denounce” the new government, which she doesn’t think will change anything for the people.

“But we will continue to do it (protest) because it’s our only way of denouncing it. We try petitions, no one listens to us,” she told CNN.

Thousands also gathered in Châtelet in central Paris.

“We’re angry, we’re very angry,” Anna, a 29 year-old researcher, told CNN.

“What’s the point in voting? We feel like the government isn’t listening to us,” she said, adding that people were fed up with successive governments under Macron that did not include representation from the left.

Impressed with the number of young people at the protest events Wednesday, she said that she thinks next week’s protest in conjunction with French unions will be even bigger.

Much of the day resembled a game of cat-and-mouse between protesters and police, with flareups like in Rennes, the capital city of Brittany, northwest France, where a bus was ransacked and set on fire.

In Paris a restaurant in the affluent 1st arrondissement was also set ablaze.

The “Block Everything” movement – a loose, leaderless coalition born on social media – first surfaced online in May among right-wing groups but has since been taken over by the left and far-left.

A larger nationwide strike and protest is already planned for September 18, when all trade unions are expected to join.

Elodie, a 34-year-old kindergarten teacher in Paris, downed tools to join Wednesday’s protest.

She said she could no longer accept politicians “waving the flag of debt to dismantle the public system, without asking the richest companies and households to contribute.”

“I’m on strike for both social and economic reasons,” she told CNN.

“The 2026 budget is unacceptable: it’s a budget of social destruction and a blow to the French state. Even though Bayrou has been forced out, once again it’s the poorest who are being targeted. That’s why I’m on strike.”

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