Unionists hold a “Stop Austerity” banner Thursday as they lead a demonstration in Paris calling on the government not to implement major public spending cuts in an effort to slash a deficit running at 5.8% of GDP. Photo by Mohammed Badra/EPA
France was on Thursday gearing up for nationwide street demonstrations and labor strikes protesting government plans to cut public spending by tens of billions of euros, with more than 80,000 police deployed to prevent violence and damage to property.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who is just nine days into the job after his predecessor, Francois Bayrou, was ousted after trying to force through $51.7 billion worth of cuts, is battling to get his own debt-slashing 2026 budget through parliament.
As many as 800,000 workers, from teachers to railway workers, were expected to take part in walkouts and 250 marches, adding to the recent political upheaval and mounting fears over a ballooning deficit that saw the country’s international creditworthiness downgraded on Friday.
Fitch Ratings cited France’s $3.95 trillion national debt, equivalent to 116% of GDP and the third highest among other similarly rated economies, warning that growing “political fragmentation” hindered prospects for improving the situation.
Lecornu has pledged a fresh start, but it remained uncertain whether he planned to jettison Bayrou’s budget or work with lawmakers to modify it into a more acceptable form.
Unions have pledged to oppose any budget that retains measures to freeze welfare benefit levels and benefits the wealthy at the expense of lower-and middle-class people.
“The message we want to send today is that labor cannot be the sole contributor to efforts required for building the budget,” said Maylise Leon, the leader of France’s largest union, the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT).
“We want a fair budget.”
Services across most of the Paris Metro were suspended and there was disruption on some lines between big cities and at government offices affected by walkouts or lesser degrees of industrial action.
Disruption to energy production or distribution was also anticipated in what was expected to be the largest protests in the two years since President Emmanuel Macron incurred the wrath of millions of workers by bypassing parliament to raise the pension age to 64.
Lecornu has just two weeks to form a minority government and draft a new budget acceptable to opposition parties spoiling to force a third general election in three years.
The National Assembly has been gridlocked since Macron called a snap election in June 2024 that returned a parliament with power divided among left-wing, centrist and far-right parties — with no-one seemingly able to form a government capable of lasting more than few months.
Following talks with Lecornu on Wednesday, socialist and far-right parties didn’t hold out much hope that this time around would be any different.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure warned the left could back a future no-confidence vote against Lecornu if he failed to listen to their calls to reverse the “harsh budget cuts.”
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen gave a similarly blunt assessment after meeting with Lecornu.
“If he continues the same politics, he’ll fall,” she said.
