PARIS ERUPTS: Furious scenes on streets of France as THOUSANDS rally against Macron
ANGER has erupted against French President Emmanuel Macron’s nationwide reforms with tear gas being unleashed on protestors in angry scenes on the streets of Paris and Nantes. Thousands took part in a rallies across the country over the leader’s enforced changes this morning.
By LAURA MOWAT
Express.co.uk
Thu, Mar 22, 2018
In the French capital, Students were caught in an angry face off with riot police, who fired tear gas in response.
Officers in Nantes also fired tear gas and water cannons at protestors in more furious scenes.
Services have ground to a halt across the country.
Teachers, train conductors and airline controllers walked off the job across France on Thursday, disrupting transport and public services in a test of public anger with President Emmanuel Macron’s reform drive.
Unions said one in four primary schools were on strike, while electricity generation dropped by over three gigawatts (GW), the equivalent of three nuclear reactors, as gas and electricity sector workers joined the strike.
Some 150 protest marches are scheduled, including two rallies starting at around 1300 GMT in Paris.
Opinion polls show a paradox: a majority of voters back the strike but an even bigger majority back the reforms, including cutting the number of public sector workers and introducing merit-based pay.
While unions have struggled to rally crowds over the past months, this is the first protest against Macron bringing together public sector workers and railway staff, potentially spelling trouble for the government ahead of a rolling rail strike.
“It’s a real mess this morning,” Didier Samba, who missed his morning commuter train to the suburbs and had more than one hour’s wait for the next, said at Paris’ Gare du Nord station.
The strike was expected to lead to the cancellation of 60 percent of fast trains, 75 percent of inter-city trains and about 30 percent of Paris airports’ flights throughout the day.
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