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France is braced for one of its biggest strike days in recent years, as trade unions make a rare show of unity to put pressure on the new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to rethink budget cuts and act on wages, pensions and public services.
About 800,000 people are expected to take to the streets in marches across the country on Thursday, according to police, while schools, rail and air transport will all be affected. A total of 80,000 police will be deployed.
It is expected to be the biggest day of demonstrations since 2023, when large numbers took to the streets to protest against the use of executive powers to push through Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular raising of the French pension age to 64 without a vote in parliament.
Lecornu must address the anger felt in France, said Perrine Mohr of the moderate CFDT trade union in the northern Hauts-de-France region, speaking on local public radio, Ici. She said that since Macron came to power in 2017, “we have had a government that is pro-business, with tax relief and unconditional assistance to businesses. What we’re asking is that the future government is more pro-workers and pro-citizens.”
The day of demonstrations comes at a time of political crisis in France after Macron last week named his close ally Lecornu as the third prime minister in a year – after the previous two, François Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were ousted by parliament amid bitter disagreements over the budget.
Lecornu, who begins his term in office with very low popularity ratings for a new prime minister, had served as defence minister in the previous two ousted governments and is struggling to convince opposition parties that he is bringing anything new, despite promising a “profound break” with past politics.
Lecornu was appointed after his centrist predecessor, Bayrou, lost a confidence vote on 8 September over his unpopular plan for a €44bn (£38bn) budget squeeze and austerity programme to reduce France’s public debt. Lecornu has said he would ditch Bayrou’s deeply unpopular proposal to scrap two public holidays. But trade unions are concerned that other elements of Bayrou’s budget cuts – such as a freeze on most welfare spending – could be maintained.
Lecornu has only weeks to come up with a budget text and form another minority government. He has to avoid any budget being immediately rejected by opposition parties who could call a vote of no confidence and oust him from office. Since Macron called a sudden snap election last June, the French parliament has been split between the left, the far-right and the centre with no absolute majority. This has resulted in repeated deadlock over the budget.
On Wednesday Lecornu met opposition parties as he consulted on the budget before appointing a new government. The 39-year-old’s background was on the traditional right before he joined Macron’s centrists, and he is likely to keep in place any new government’s cooperation with the traditional rightwing party, Les Républicains, as well as maintaining Macron’s legacy of pro-business economic policy.
But if Lecornu is to avoid being ousted in a no-confidence vote, he is under pressure to find some way of appealing to the Socialist party, so observers believe they may at least agree a non-aggression pact not to immediately vote to oust him.
The Socialists met Lecornu on Wednesday and called for “an end to harsh budget cuts” saying they wanted “fair contributions from the wealthiest” and more policies to help French people make ends meet. But the leftwing delegation emerged saying Lecornu had not said much about his plans. “We’ll see what he says in the coming days,” the Socialist leader, Olivier Faure, told reporters. Faure said if Lecornu was “not willing to listen to us,” the Socialists could join a future no-confidence vote to oust him.
Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally party, a key opposition force, emerged from a separate meeting with Lecornu saying: “If he continues the same politics, he’ll fall.”
France is under pressure to lower a budget deficit that stands at nearly double the European Union’s 3% ceiling, and a debt pile equivalent to 114% of GDP. The Fitch rating agency downgraded France’s credit rating last week, amid concerns over political instability in France.
