France has new day of strike and protests

Several unions in France joined forces this Thursday (5) for a new day of strikes and demonstrations across the country.

According to news agencies, large demonstrations are taking place in Paris, Lyon and Marseille, with thousands of people expected to participate.

Around 260 protests against the rising cost of living and in support of the movement started by high school students are planned, according to unions.

Hundreds of secondary schools were closed or unable to operate, some due to protests, others because teachers joined the strike.

Public transport was severely affected.

"We continue with the movement because they don't listen to us. We are here to try to change things," Luce, 15, told AFP in Strasbourg.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that 70,000 police officers are being mobilized, supported by armored vehicles, drones and helicopters.

Authorities in western Brittany reported that "masked individuals" attempted to block roads in the city of Rennes on Thursday, and young people - often accompanied by adults - committed "serious acts of violence", including throwing steel balls at police.

The students began the protests in mid-September and, despite some government responses to their demands, such as modifying the university admission system, they decided to maintain the mobilization as they considered the measures insufficient.

In Paris, security forces prevented the blocking of educational centers in several parts of the capital and used tear gas to disperse young protesters.

In addition to students, the union mobilization should count on the participation this Thursday of the yellow vest movement, which resumed protests in October against the cost of living, and farmers from the organization Confederação Camponesa.

The demonstrations, some marked by disturbances and looting, such as the one on October 17, shake up the final months of the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to leave power in May.

Macron "ends his term as he governed: alone, against everyone", said environmental leader Marine Tondelier, in an interview with Public Sénat broadcaster. According to her, the government will have "difficulties" in responding to a "convergence of struggles".

"It will be a beautiful mobilization," said the leader of the CFDT union, Marylise Léon, who compared it to the demonstrations in 2023 against the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years imposed by Macron.

On some days, the demonstrations brought together almost 1.3 million people, according to authorities, but for this Thursday between 500,000 and 700,000 people are expected outside Paris, and between 40,000 and 80,000 in the capital.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced the mobilization of 70,000 police and gendarmes, promising "an extremely firm response" in the face of possible unrest.

The unions are calling for a revaluation of the interprofessional minimum wage, an increase in all salaries, more fiscal justice and the preservation of public services.

Between rising fuel prices and the strong fiscal adjustment that the government wants in the 2027 budgets, purchasing power is at the heart of growing social unrest.

The government is also under pressure over its handling of the protests.

To avoid a repeat of the scenes of chaos on October 17th, which spread across the world, Macron's government increased the number of police officers on the streets and even banned demonstrations in city centers.

Associations of judges, lawyers, unions and human rights organizations have denounced an "authoritarian turn" which, they claim, perverts the rule of law to silence "all dissenting voices".