Nationwide Strikes Challenge France’s New Prime Minister Over Budget Plans

France braced for widespread disruptions on Thursday as major trade unions launched a coordinated day of strikes and demonstrations against proposed austerity measures, piling pressure on newly appointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu just days into his tenure. The actions, uniting eight unions for the first time since the 2023 pension protests, target a €44 billion budget squeeze outlined by Lecornu's predecessor, François Bayrou, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote last week amid fiscal deadlock. With over 250 rallies declared nationwide, the mobilisation aims to force revisions to cuts that unions decry as "unprecedented brutality", hitting workers, retirees, and public services hardest.

Lecornu, a Macron loyalist and former defence minister sworn in on September 10, faces an uphill battle in a hung parliament to pass the 2026 budget and trim France's deficit—nearly double the EU's 3% ceiling at 5.5% of GDP in 2024—while curbing debt at 112% of GDP. Despite scrapping one unpopular proposal to eliminate two public holidays, he has held firm on core elements like freezing social welfare, overhauling unemployment benefits, delinking pensions from inflation, and hiking out-of-pocket medical costs, sparking union outrage over eroded purchasing power for low- and middle-income groups. Unions, including the hardline CGT and moderate CFDT, issued a preemptive joint statement lamenting the government's choice to burden precarious workers and the ill while reigniting fury over Macron's 2023 pension reform raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau warned of "very strong mobilisation", deploying 80,000 police and gendarmes to counter potential blockades, sabotage, and violence from ultraleft groups. Disruptions loomed across sectors: regional trains, the Paris metro, and commuter lines faced severe interruptions, while SNCF high-speed services expected minor delays. One-third of elementary teachers were projected to strike, alongside hospital staff, pharmacists closing shops over generic drug cuts, and energy workers demanding wage hikes and lower bills. Air traffic controllers postponed action pending a full cabinet, averting major airport chaos.

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The protests echo last week's "Block Everything" grassroots campaign, which drew 200,000 participants but fell short of nationwide paralysis despite barricades and tear gas clashes. Organised via social media, it amplified anti-elite sentiment against Macron's fractured coalition, now Macron's fifth premier in under two years. Lecornu, polling low on trust, met unions last week promising "substantive changes" but struggled to sway them, with opposition from far-left and far-right parties complicating parliamentary support. As smoke from burning barricades and chants fill streets from Paris to Lille, the day tests Lecornu's ability to navigate fiscal imperatives against social unrest in Europe's second-largest economy.

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