Overview

• Authorities anticipated roughly 800,000 participants across hundreds of marches, with early reports citing 55 arrests nationwide and additional detentions in Marseille and Toulouse.
• The operation deployed more than 80,000 police and gendarmes supported by drones, 24 Centauro armoured vehicles and 10 water cannon trucks, with officials warning of thousands of radical infiltrators.
• Transport, education and health services were heavily disrupted, with Paris’s RATP network hardest hit, long‑distance trains running at about 90%, taxis joining the strike and around 90% of pharmacies closed.
• Trade unions demanded withdrawal of the 2026 budget adjustment and called for fairer budgets, condemning the package’s proposed freezes and service cuts.
• The contested plan was presented by former prime minister François Bayrou, who resigned after losing a confidence vote tied to the measures.