Although falling short of its self-declared intention of total disruption, the protests still managed to paralyze parts of daily life and ignite hundreds of hot spots across the country.<\/p>\n
The deployment of 80,000 police officers broke up barricades and dragged hundreds of protesters into custody, yet flashpoints multiplied. In Rennes, a bus was torched. In the southwest, electrical cables were severed, halting train services and snarling traffic.<\/p>\n
By evening, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said nearly 200,000 people had taken to the streets nationwide, while the CGT union, one of France\u2019s largest labor confederations, claimed closer to 250,000. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n French police fire tear gas grenades to protesters during a gathering of the \u201cBlock Everything\u201d movement in Marseille, south of France, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Philippe Magoni)<\/p>\n French police fire tear gas grenades to protesters during a gathering of the \u201cBlock Everything\u201d movement in Marseille, south of France, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Philippe Magoni)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n His ministry reported more than 450 arrests, hundreds held in custody, over a dozen officers injured, and more than 800 protest actions \u2014 from rallies to street fires \u2014 across the country. Retailleau called the day \u201ca defeat for those who wanted to block the country.\u201d Yet the government\u2019s own tally told a different story.<\/p>\n The \u201cBloquons Tout,\u201d or \u201cBlock Everything,\u201d protests did not match the scale of France\u2019s 2018 yellow vest<\/a> revolt, but still underscored the cycle of unrest that has dogged Macron\u2019s presidency: mass deployments, bursts of violence, and repeated clashes between the government and the streets.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n AP AUDIO: Block Everything\u2019 protests turn new French PM\u2019s first day into chaos\n <\/p>\n AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports scuffles break out between French police and protesters as the \u2018Block Everything\u2019 protests get underway.<\/p>\n After his reelection in 2022, Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms<\/a> and nationwide unrest and rioting<\/a> in 2023 after the deadly police shooting<\/a> of a teenager on Paris\u2019 outskirts.<\/p>\n Still, demonstrations and sporadic clashes with riot police in Paris and elsewhere Wednesday added to a sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when Prime Minister Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Protesters block a street during the \u201cBloquons Tout\u201d (Block Everything) protest movement in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thibault Camus)<\/p>\n Protesters block a street during the \u201cBloquons Tout\u201d (Block Everything) protest movement in Paris, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thibault Camus)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The protests immediately presented a challenge to Bayrou\u2019s replacement, Lecornu<\/a>, installed Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u2018Another from the right\u2019<\/p>\n Groups of protesters who repeatedly tried to block Paris\u2019 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 out to a fire in a restaurant in the downtown Ch\u00e2telet neighborhood, where thousands of protesters gathered peacefully.<\/p>\n Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widely spread \u2014 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. Authorities reported demonstrations in small towns, too.<\/p>\n Afternoon gatherings of thousands of people in central Paris were peaceful and good-humored, with placards taking aim at Macron and his new prime minister.<\/p>\n \u201cLecornu, you\u2019re not welcome,\u201d read a placard brandished by a group of graphic design students. Another read: \u201cMacron explosion.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOne prime minister has just been ousted and straight away we get another from the right,\u201d said student Baptiste Sagot, 21. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to make working people, young students, retirees \u2014 all people in difficulty \u2014 bear all the effort instead of taxing wealth.\u201d<\/p>\n A weary nation<\/p>\n France\u2019s prolonged cycle of political instability, with Macron\u2019s minority governments lurching from crisis to crisis, has fueled widespread discontent.<\/p>\n Paris protester Aglawen Vega, a nurse and public hospital union delegate, said anger that fueled the yellow-vest protests never went away and that she wanted to defend France\u2019s public services from privatization.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re governed by robbers,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are suffering, are finding it harder and harder to last out the month, to feed themselves. We\u2019re becoming an impoverished nation.\u201d <\/p>\n Some criticized the disruptions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bit excessive,\u201d said Bertrand Rivard, an accounting worker on his way to a meeting in Paris. \u201cWe live in a democracy and the people should not block the country because the government doesn\u2019t take the right decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cBlock Everything\u201d gathered momentum over the summer on social media and encrypted chats, including on Telegram. Pavel Durov, Telegram\u2019s Russian-born founder now under investigation<\/a> in France for alleged criminal activity on the messaging app., said he is \u201cproud\u201d the platform was used to organize anti-Macron rallies.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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