Public workers in France strike over pay as student protests turn violent

Tens of thousands of workers march nationwide, as police arrest 440 students in clashes at schools.

Tens of thousands join France public sector strike over pay and budget cuts

Tens of thousands of civil servants, including teachers, firefighters and healthcare workers, have marched in cities across France to demand higher pay, as students clashed with the police in separate protests over conditions at their schools.

Unions said some 300,000 people took part in the one-day strike action nationwide, while police on Tuesday estimated a turnout of 30,000 in the capital, Paris. The workers also demanded better working conditions and expressed anger at the government’s planned budget cuts .

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Protests also took place at more than 400 schools, about 40 of which were blockaded and 44 of which faced attempted blockades.

Ten people, both students and staff members, were wounded, and at least 440 were detained, officials said.

The strikes and the student unrest came two days before the government is to unveil its draft budget and seven months before the presidential election. According to unions, the government proposes freezing base salaries for state employees in 2027 to save 2 billion euros ($2.3bn).

It would be the fourth consecutive annual freeze and the eighth during President Emmanuel Macron’s tenure. Unions say the freezes have cost workers a double-digit share of their purchasing power, and they are demanding a 6 percent raise.

Sophie Binet, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor, called the protests “a red alert”.

“This anger is not going away. The government must look again at the budget,” she told Al Jazeera. She gave the government 48 hours to reverse the planned cuts before her union decides on further strike action.

The Education Ministry said just more than 11 percent of teachers and other school staff went on strike. French teachers are paid less on average than their counterparts in other European countries.

Fewer than 1 in 10 other civil servants took part, and fewer still in hospitals, with the loss of a day’s pay a likely factor in the turnout. France’s civil aviation regulator had warned of flight disruptions at some airports.

Professional firefighters, who say this summer’s huge wildfires exposed a lack of resources, were among those marching.

The government has already unveiled measures to help households cope with a spike in energy prices driven by the United States and Israel’s war on Iran, but it has failed to quell the discontent with Macron and his administration.

Students, meanwhile, have been protesting outside hundreds of schools over timetables, class sizes, teacher shortages and overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves. The demonstrations began in the Ile-de-France region around Paris and spread to other cities.

In addition to the 10 students and staff members who were hurt, 48 law enforcement officials were injured, authorities said, as students in some places set fire to rubbish bins and hurled projectiles, and officers responded with batons and tear gas.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told BFMTV that 440 people had been detained.

“We don’t have the final tally yet, but I’m told two thirds led to police custody,” he said. “Violence is never legitimate. There is nothing that justifies violence.”

Education Minister Edouard Geffray condemned the clashes on social media.

“This violence is unspeakable,” he wrote, adding that legal proceedings had begun. “To legitimize it or… call for an expansion of the blockades is to endanger both our students and public officials. It is irresponsible.”

‘Fewer cops, more money’

In Seine-Saint-Denis, a low-income suburb of Paris, Bally Bagayoko, the district’s mayor and a member of the hard-left France Unbowed party, joined hundreds of students protesting at the Lycee Paul-Eluard.

He led them in singing the national anthem and called the protests “completely legitimate”, saying poorer areas received fewer resources than wealthier ones.

Outside the Arago school in Paris, students, some with their faces covered, sat on dumpsters to block the entrance beneath a placard reading “Macron explosion”. A banner at the Helene-Boucher school read “Fewer cops, more money”.

“We want fewer police because we think there is a huge amount of police repression, both against high school student movements and social movements more generally,” said Mael Breton, a final-year student there. “This is a real problem, especially when there is such a lack of funding… here at our school and in the national education system more broadly.”

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Monday condemned the high school protests as irresponsible but acknowledged that the “difficulties of high schools must be heard and addressed”.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, a hard-left presidential contender, accused the government of steadily dismantling public services as he addressed protesters in Paris and urged his supporters to mobilise against the draft budget.

A Toluna Harris poll on Monday suggested that Melenchon and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally, would advance to next year’s presidential run-off, with Le Pen best placed to win.

数万名工人走上全国街头游行，与此同时，警方在学校冲突中逮捕了 440 名学生。

数万民众加入法国公共部门罢工，抗议工资削减和预算削减。

数万名公务员，包括教师、消防员和医护人员，在法国各地城市举行游行，要求提高工资；与此同时，学生们在另一场抗议活动中与警方发生冲突，抗议学校的状况。

工会称，全国约有30万人参加了为期一天的罢工行动，而警方周二估计，首都巴黎的罢工人数约为3万人。工人们还要求改善工作条件，并对政府计划削减预算表示愤怒。

图1/3：教宗利奥在巴黎举行露天弥撒，吸引数十万人参加

法国极右翼政党国民联盟在参议院投票中取得进展（共3条记录，此为第2条）

图3（共3张）：法国学生抗议，公务员罢工，反对预算削减

超过 400 所学校也发生了抗议活动，其中约 40 所学校被封锁，44 所学校面临封锁未遂。

官方称，有10人受伤，其中包括学生和教职员工，至少440人被拘留。

罢工和学生骚乱发生在政府公布预算草案前两天，距离总统选举还有七个月。据工会称，政府提议从2027年起冻结公务员的基本工资，以节省20亿欧元（约合23亿美元）。

这将是连续第四年冻结工资，也是马克龙总统任期内的第八次。工会表示，工资冻结已使工人的购买力下降了两位数，他们要求加薪6%。

劳动总联合会秘书长索菲·比内称这些抗议活动是“红色警报”。

“这种愤怒不会消散。政府必须重新审视预算，”她告诉半岛电视台。她要求政府在48小时内撤销削减计划，否则她的工会将决定采取进一步的罢工行动。

法国教育部表示，超过11%的教师和其他学校员工参与了罢工。法国教师的平均工资低于其他欧洲国家的同行。

其他公务员中只有不到十分之一的人参加了此次活动，医院的参与人数更少，而失去一天的工资可能是影响参与率的一个因素。法国民航监管机构曾警告称，部分机场的航班可能会受到影响。

专业消防员也参加了游行，他们表示，今年夏天的大规模野火暴露了资源的匮乏。

政府已经出台措施帮助家庭应对因美国和以色列对伊朗发动战争而导致的能源价格飙升，但这些措施未能平息民众对马克龙及其政府的不满。

与此同时，学生们在数百所学校外举行抗议活动，反对课程安排、班级规模、教师短缺以及今年热浪期间教室过热等问题。示威活动最初在巴黎周边的法兰西岛大区爆发，随后蔓延至其他城市。

当局称，除 10 名学生和教职员工受伤外，还有 48 名执法人员受伤，因为一些地方的学生点燃了垃圾桶并投掷物品，而警察则用警棍和催泪瓦斯进行回应。

内政部长洛朗·努涅斯告诉BFMTV电视台，已有440人被拘留。

“我们还没有最终统计结果，但我听说三分之二的案件导致嫌疑人被警方拘留，”他说。“暴力永远都是不正当的。没有任何理由可以为暴力开脱。”

教育部长爱德华·杰弗雷在社交媒体上谴责了这些冲突。

“这种暴力行为令人发指，”他写道，并补充说法律程序已经启动。“如果使这种行为合法化，或者……呼吁扩大封锁范围，就会危及我们的学生和公职人员的安全。这是不负责任的。”

“减少警力，增加资金”

在巴黎低收入郊区塞纳-圣但尼省，该区区长、极左翼政党“不屈法国”成员巴利·巴加约科加入了数百名在保罗·艾吕亚中学抗议的学生行列。

他带领大家高唱国歌，并称这些抗议活动“完全合法”，还说较贫穷的地区获得的资源比较富裕的地区少。

在巴黎阿拉戈学校外，一些学生蒙着脸坐在垃圾箱上，堵住入口，他们举着一块写着“马克龙爆炸”的标语牌。在海伦·布歇学校，一条横幅上写着“减少警察，增加资金”。

“我们希望减少警力，因为我们认为警方对高中学生运动以及更广泛的社会运动都进行了大量的镇压，”该校一名即将毕业的学生梅尔·布雷顿说。“这是一个真正的问题，尤其是在我们学校以及整个国家教育系统都如此缺乏资金的情况下。”

周一，总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努谴责高中生的抗议活动是不负责任的，但他承认“必须倾听并解决高中生面临的困难”。

极左翼总统候选人让-吕克·梅朗雄在巴黎向抗议者发表讲话时，指责政府正在逐步瓦解公共服务，并敦促他的支持者动员起来反对预算草案。

周一，托卢纳·哈里斯民调显示，梅朗雄和极右翼政党国民联盟领导人玛丽娜·勒庞将进入明年的总统决选，勒庞最有希望获胜。