EPAFrance is seeing a day of protests led by a grassroots movement named Bloquons Tout (“Let’s Block Everything”) in a show of anger against the political class and proposed budget cuts.
The demonstrations are taking place on the same day new Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu was sworn in following the toppling of his predecessor, François Bayrou, in a no-confidence vote earlier this week.
Demonstrators blocked streets, set bins on fire, and disrupted access to infrastructure and schools across the country.
Around 250 people had been arrested by mid-morning, outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said.
A bus was torched in Rennes and electric cables near Toulouse were sabotaged, he added.
Several thousand people gathered in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux and Montpellier.
However, the disruption has remained fairly small-scale. Most of the arrests were made in or around Paris, where about 1,000 protesters – many masked or wearing balaclavas – clashed with police outside Gare du Nord train station.
Some tried to enter the station but were thwarted by agents who fired tear gas, French media report.
Many protesters chanted political slogans against President Emmanuel Macron and Lecornu. Several carried placards against the war in Gaza.
The nebulous movement Let’s Block Everything appears to have been born on social media some months ago and gained momentum over the summer, when it encouraged people to protest against Bayrou’s €44bn (£38bn) budget cuts.
The movement has a distinct left-wing character. Its demands include more investment in public services, taxation for high income brackets, rent freezes and Macron’s resignation.
In the lead-up to Wednesday’s protests, Let’s Block Everything urged people to take part in acts of civil disobedience against “austerity, contempt and humiliation”.
A group of young protesters outside Gare du Nord told the BBC they were taking to the streets in “solidarity” with people in precarious situations across France.
“We are here because we are very tired of how Macron has been handling the situation” of France’s spiralling debt, said Alex, 25, adding he had no faith in the new prime minister not to “repeat the cycle”.
Getty ImagesLecornu is a Macron loyalist and the country’s fifth prime minister in under two years.
His appointment has already been criticised by both the far right and left-wing parties.
He will first need to come up with a budget palatable to a majority of MPs in France’s hung parliament – the same challenging endeavour which brought down his two predecessors.
France’s deficit reached 5.8% of GDP in 2024 but the three distinct ideological groups in the deeply divided Assembly disagree on how to tackle the crisis.
The radical-left France Unbowed party has already said it will table a no confidence motion in Lecornu as soon as possible.
However, that motion would need support by other parties to pass. As it stands, the largest parliamentary party – the far-right National Rally – said it would “listen to what Lecornu had to say” albeit “without many illusions”.
In a brief speech following the handover of power at the prime minister’s residence, Lecornu thanked Bayrou for his work and promised French people: “We’ll get there.”
“The instability and the political crisis we are going through demand sobriety and humility,” Lecornu said.
“We will have to be more creative, more serious, in the way we work with the opposition,” he added, before announcing he would start holding talks with political parties and trade unions immediately.
