Police make 295 arrests as 'Block everything' movement sweeps France

Protesters on Wednesday blocked roads, lit blazes and sporadically clashed with police across France, on the first day of the nationwide 'Block Everything' protest movement. 

The French interior ministry announced 295 arrests during this planned day of demonstrations against French president Emmanuel Macron and budget cuts, among other grievances. Authorities had deployed an exceptional 80,000 police to respond to the movement.  

The movement also represents a challenge for Emmanuel Macron, but also for France’s new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu.  

He was inaugurated on Wednesday, two days after a confidence vote ousted his predecessor François Bayrou. 

The protests appeared so far to be less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron in both his first and ongoing second term as president. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations against economic injustice in 2018-2019.

After his reelection in 2022, Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts.

But demonstrators of the 'Block Everything' movement still caused widespread hot spots of disruption. 

Groups of protesters who repeatedly tried to block Paris' beltway during the morning rush hour were dispersed by police using tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up trash cans and hurled objects at police officers.

Firefighters were called to the downtown Châtelet neighbourhood after a fire broke out in a restaurant, threatening to spread to an adjacent building.

Parisian police reported 183 arrests by mid-afternoon, with more than 100 other people taken into police custody elsewhere in France, according to the interior ministry count.

Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread — from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the southeast.

Afternoon gatherings of thousands of people in central Paris were peaceful and good humoured, with placards taking aim at Macron and his new prime minister.

“Lecornu, you’re not welcome,” read a sign brandished by a group of graphic design students. Another read: "Macron explosion."