France strikes disrupt transport as police clash with protesters

Riot police clashed with protesters in Lyon on Thursday as strikes and demonstrations over wages, rising living costs and public services disrupted France. The Eiffel Tower closed for the day, and public transport was heavily affected.

The protests also backed a growing high school movement that began over staff shortages at the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry High School in Créteil, southeast of Paris. Videos of a blockade there spread on social media, and actions expanded to schools across the country, NBC News reported. Students, teachers, parents, university students and politicians have since joined a movement whose grievances now extend beyond education.

Unions had planned roughly 250 to 260 rallies nationwide, according to the two reports. Al Jazeera reported that tens of thousands of union members joined Thursday’s strikes and demonstrations, while NBC News said unions had expected hundreds of thousands of people to turn out. Al Jazeera said about a third of France’s high schools were closed or unable to operate because of student blockades or teachers walking off the job.

In Lyon, officers in protective gear charged crowds after demonstrations turned violent and fires were set in the streets, NBC News reported. Police also used water cannons. Some protesters wore gas masks and safety glasses against tear gas. Images from Paris showed students and other demonstrators facing riot police.

Police were “keeping the situation under control, but it remains tense,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement issued at 1 p.m. local time, according to NBC News. The ministry said fireworks fired at a school near Toulouse sparked a blaze that burned the student services office. It also reported that officers were struck by metal pétanque balls in Rennes and pelted with other projectiles in Pau and Orleans.

The scene was different at Paris’ Place de la République, where Al Jazeera described a largely festive atmosphere despite heavy security. Protesters gathered beneath union banners as musicians and choirs performed. Earlier protests there on October 17 had been marred by rioting and looting, Al Jazeera reported.

France’s main unions, including the CGT and CNT, which represent public and private sector workers, and the student union UNEF, warned President Emmanuel Macron’s government that the country was on the brink of recession, NBC News reported. “Everything is going up except wages and pensions,” they said in a joint statement. “Anger is immense.”

Ahead of Thursday’s protests, Macron convened a defense and security meeting Wednesday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez later said 70,000 officers would be deployed, supported by armored vehicles, drones and helicopters, according to NBC News.

NBC News also reported that police have faced criticism over injuries to protesters, including two teenagers hurt by police-fired sting ball grenades last month. An investigation remains underway into the death of a 59-year-old man who died after leaving Place de la République on October 17, when police had used tear gas there.