French police have arrested hundreds of people as protests led by left-wing forces under the label “Block Everything” were launched across the country.
More than 200 people were reported to have been arrested in the morning hours as demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and blocked highways, spurred by frustration with President Emmanuel Macron’s government amid a national political crisis.
The 80,000 police deployed across the nation responded with bouts of tear gas and detainments.
The demonstrations – part of a grassroots movement called “Bloquons Tout” or “Block Everything” – sought to use work strikes, blockades and other acts of defiance to express long-simmering anger over the government and its austerity measures.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau reported that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes and that damage to a power line had blocked trains in the southwest. However, the protests initially appeared more tame than previous bouts of unrest against Macron’s leadership.
The plan to “block everything” emerged after former Prime Minister Francois Bayrou lost a confidence vote on Monday and Macron named close ally, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, to replace him.
He is France’s fifth premier in less than two years, and the fourth in 12 months.
Florent, a protester in Lyon, told the AFP news agency that Macron’s decision to appoint his close ally to the top job “is a slap in the face”.
“We are tired of his successive governments; we need change,” he said.
The Block Everything movement, which has gone viral on social media, has been fuelled by increased dismay over budget-tightening policies that Bayrou championed, as well as broader concerns with poverty and inequality, which have risen sharply in recent years, according to France’s statistics bureau.
Its spontaneity is reminiscent of the “Yellow Vest” movement that rocked Macron’s first term as president, when yellow-clad protesters across the nation challenged rising fuel prices and pro-business policies for weeks on end in protests that became increasingly violent.
