Overview
- Hundreds of thousands of people joined strikes and demonstrations on Thursday as five major unions formally backed a student-led movement over pay, jobs and school funding.
- The Interior Ministry deployed about 70,000 police and gendarmes nationwide and banned a central Paris route between Place de la Bastille and Place de la Concorde to reduce the risk of renewed rioting.
- The walkouts and blockades have disrupted schools, rail and public transport and have reduced France’s nuclear output by roughly 2.4 gigawatts, forcing higher electricity imports and local service shortages.
- Rights groups and the national police inspectorate have opened probes after reports of heavy-handed policing and injuries to teenage protesters, even as authorities say they will act firmly against looting and violence.
- Union demands centre on an increase in the minimum wage, broad pay rises and more school investment, and the mobilisation is reshaping the campaign narrative ahead of the 2027 presidential vote while straining a fiscally stretched government.