FLASH
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Mobilization paralyzes Paris and other cities. Mélenchon takes charge of the movement, which was born outside political parties, while intelligence agencies fear an escalation worse than that of the Yellow Vests…
Clashes and tensions erupted on Wednesday morning in the area around Paris' Gare du Nord train station, one of the country's main rail hubs.
A group of protesters dressed in black, in the style of the Black Bloc, with their faces covered with masks, attempted to enter the station, but were repelled by a large contingent of police in riot gear.
Police dispersed the crowd with tear gas, while slogans such as "We are all anti-fascists" were also chanted over loudspeakers in Italian.
According to the capital's prefecture, 75 people have been arrested in Paris and its suburbs alone, mainly near the Peripherique, the city's ring road, where protesters tried to block traffic.
Arrests across France numbered around 295 during the day of protests, with incidents and clashes between protesters and police reported in several cities, according to French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau.
171 arrests were made in the Ile-de-France region and four members of the police force were slightly injured. In the capital, police fired tear gas in front of several high schools, which had already become hotbeds of protests. Cars were set on fire and clashes between police and protesters took place in Rennes, Nantes, Lyon and Toulouse.
Retailleau said that "the protest has no character of a civic protest. It has been distorted, hijacked and confiscated by the far left."
The protests stemmed from dissatisfaction with the economic policies of former Prime Minister François Bayrou, who had proposed cuts totaling 44 billion euros, the elimination of two public holidays, and the freezing of pensions.
But the vote of no confidence in the Assembly and his resignation at the Élysée Palace quickly changed the situation: the new target of the protests was Emmanuel Macron, accused of embodying the system that needed to be overthrown.
The "Bloquons tout" movement was born on the Telegram channels of Les Essentiels, led by entrepreneur Julien Marissiaux, and quickly expanded to become a cross-party movement of demands.
Initially close to the sovereigntist and anti-vaccine currents, it was later supported by the radical left. According to the Jean Jaurès Foundation, 69% of its supporters had voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2022. It is no coincidence that the leader of La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France) has fully embraced the protest, relaunching it as a decisive moment in his political battle. In addition to the support of La France Insoumise (Unsubmissive France), the protest is also being supported by the Socialist Party, the Greens and the main unions such as the CGT, Solidaires and Sud-Rail. The aim is to paralyze the country with roadblocks, transport strikes, schools and hospitals experiencing operational difficulties, boycotts and even symbolic withdrawals of bank savings.
The phenomenon inevitably brings to mind the Yellow Vest protests, but with significant differences: whereas in 2018 the movement was largely made up of retirees with little political involvement, today's protesters are younger, better educated and closer to the radical left. And while Marine Le Pen maintains idealistic but cautious support, preferring electoral action to the streets, Mélenchon is betting everything on mobilization, seeing the success of "Bloquons tout" as a decisive turning point for his political future.
In an economic climate marked by the risk of a Fitch rating downgrade and rising social tensions, intelligence agencies fear that the protests could surpass those of 2018 in terms of chaos and impact. / Adapted from Il Giornale /
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