No Way Out: France Erupts Again Over Hard Choices 

Early last Wednesday morning, before most commuters hit the buses and trains, a crowd of protesters just north of Gare du Nord train station in central Paris cheered as they made their way downtown to “block everything.” 

By the end of the day, demonstrators in Paris, Marseille, and other cities had blocked roads, lit fires, and halted some trains and buses, and were met with volleys of tear gas by more than 80,000 police officers deployed across France. Almost 500 people were arrested.  

The unrest that erupted was just the latest action by the “Bloquons Tout” (Block Everything) movement that started online in the summer after the government proposed slashing $51 billion in government spending and eliminating two public holidays to lower the deficit and trillions in debt. In protests during the summer, demonstrators called for the government and also President Emmanuel Macron to resign. 

Last week, the government of Prime Minister François Bayrou fell after losing a no-confidence vote.  

This latest round of protests, meanwhile, was triggered by the appointment of Sébastien Lecornu as premier immediately after.  

The protests, while smaller and less organized than those against Macron’s pension reforms in 2023 or the Yellow Vest demonstrations protesting fuel price hikes and economic injustice seven years ago, are now adding to a sense of crisis that has gripped France over the past year, analysts say: The country will now have its third prime minister since Macron dramatically dissolved the National Assembly last year, triggering an unscheduled legislative election that resulted in the lower house of parliament mainly consisting of his opponents.  

Now, the fall of the government plunges the country into a new period of “triple trouble”: political crisis, market jitters, and popular unrest, say commentators. 

“Macron is caught in a political vise, with the far left calling for his resignation, the far right demanding a snap election, and the mainstream left and right remain unable to reach consensus,” wrote CNN. 

France has seen widespread discontent for the past six years due to cost-of-living complaints and policies implemented by Macron to make the country more business-friendly and shore up the economy, which has meant cutting elements of the country’s generous social safety net. But those attempts have caused fury to spill into the streets.  

“We’re governed by robbers,” Paris protester Aglawen Vega, a nurse, told the Associated Press, saying she worries about public services being privatized, while adding that the anger that fueled the Yellow Vest protests has never dissipated. “People are suffering, are finding it harder and harder to last out the month, to feed themselves. We’re becoming an impoverished nation.” 

Meanwhile, the turmoil is rattling the bond market of the eurozone’s second-largest economy. The yield on its 10-year government bonds has climbed steeply, nearing that of Italy’s. On Friday, credit rating agency Fitch downgraded France’s sovereign credit score to the country’s lowest level on record, stripping the country’s economy of its AA- status.  

It is also coming as France aims to double its defense spending from 2.1 percent of its GDP to $75 billion by 2027. But with a deficit of about 6 percent of GDP and public debt at 114 percent of GDP – the third-highest in Europe behind Greece and Italy – the question is how to pay for it.  

For decades, France, like other European countries, has spent extravagantly on social services such as health care, education, and public-sector pensions. But the war in Ukraine , along with President Donald Trump’s threat to eschew coming to Europe’s defense, has changed the thinking in Europe to force countries to reach what Macron calls “strategic autonomy.”  

To pay for this, France’s leftist parties want to raise taxes on corporations, while the right wants to cut back on contributions to the European Union. The center, represented by Macron, wants to trim social spending and grow the economy with pro-business policies. But because of the hung parliament, no one is getting anywhere.  

Now, commentators say, this may become a typical scenario in Europe. 

“The turmoil echoes deep divisions across Europe as countries struggle to make good on their promises to spend more on defense while preserving bloated social-welfare benefits,” the Washington Post wrote. “The vote to oust Bayrou could be a harbinger of what’s coming for other social democracies.” 

Meanwhile, in France, there is seemingly no end in sight, say analysts. 

Lecornu, who had previously served as minister of defense, and who said last week that he wants to “break” with the past, now faces the same budget conundrum, political gridlock, and popular hostility that brought down the past prime minister.  

Already, general strikes and more protests are expected Thursday.  

And more turmoil is likely in the future. 

“In France, the potential for an amorphous movement to harden into something more dangerous can never be ruled out,” wrote the Economist. “(Lecornu) is set to inherit an even more unstable country than the one Bayrou has left behind.”