France Blocks - Macron Under Pressure

Paris held its breath this Wednesday. Exactly at the moment when President Emmanuel Macron was swearing in his new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu, protest erupted in the streets. Already in the early morning hours barricades were burning, streets were blocked and buses were set on fire. The movement bears the telling name "Bloquons Tout" - Block Everything - and it aims to give the new head of government a baptism of fire. The Interior Ministry reported nearly two hundred arrests in the first hours. Despite the unprecedented deployment of 80,000 police officers who cleared blockades and removed barricades, demonstrators managed to bring traffic to a standstill in many cities. In Rennes a bus was set on fire, in the southwest a damaged power line brought a rail line to a halt. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau spoke of an attempt to "create a climate of insurrection."

The protests are the latest chapter in a long conflict between president and street. Already in 2018 and 2019 the yellow vests shook the country for months. In 2023 the anger over pension reform and the rage over the deadly police shooting in a Paris suburb led to the greatest unrest in decades. The new movement ties into this tradition - spontaneous, with no clearly recognizable leadership figure, fueled by encrypted chat groups and viral calls. Its demands are as diverse as its followers: They are directed against budget cuts that the ousted Prime Minister François Bayrou defended only a few weeks ago, and against a policy that many believe worsens social inequality.

Paris was hit particularly hard in the morning: groups of activists repeatedly tried to block the city ring road during rush hour. They erected barricades, threw objects at police officers, stopped traffic. The image was reminiscent of the furious blockades of the yellow vests seven years ago, when workers and employees in bright yellow vests occupied traffic circles to protest a fuel tax. Exactly at the moment when President Emmanuel Macron was swearing in his new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu, protest erupted in the streets. Already in the early morning hours barricades were burning, streets were blocked and buses were set on fire. The movement bears the telling name "Bloquons Tout" - Block Everything - and it aims to give the new head of government a baptism of fire.

The new wave of protest is just as broad - students, union members, precarious workers, but also retirees and the self-employed march together. For Macron the situation is delicate: Only on Monday the Bayrou government fell in parliament, now his fresh prime minister Lecornu faces the challenge of calming the country before it unravels further. That the first days in office are marked by tear gas, roadblocks and arrests could burden the political agenda from the very beginning. The question arises whether Lecornu can contain the social explosion or whether France will slide into a new autumn of anger.