Chopping down a lecture hall: in France, they are protesting over cuts in social spending

The political crisis in France is gaining momentum. Nationwide protests are taking place in major cities of the country on September 10, and the Interior Ministry has deployed about 80,000 law enforcement officers to ensure order. After the resignation of Francois Bayrou, President Emmanuel Macron appointed his close associate Sebastian Lecorny, who previously served as the country's defense minister, as head of the cabinet. Now he must pass through parliament a law on the budget for 2026, increasing military spending. What the French are unhappy about and whether the new prime minister will be able to come to an agreement with parliament is in the Izvestia article.

The goal of the protesters is to paralyze the infrastructure

Nationwide protests and strikes are taking place in France on September 10. Trade unions, students, schoolchildren, environmental movements, political parties and just the French take part in them. The number of participants is estimated at about 100 thousand people, to deter which the Interior Ministry has put forward about 80 thousand law enforcement officers across the country. In Paris alone, there are almost 6,000 police officers on the streets to maintain order. The protesters are blocking roads, holding marches and clashing with law enforcement officers.

The link for the groups participating in the protests is the decentralized movement Bloquons tout ("Block everything"), which appeared in the spring of 2025 in messengers. Some media outlets even call them the new "Yellow Vests." Over the past summer, a number of large trade unions have joined the movement, such as SUD (Union of Syndicalist Solidarists) and CGT (General Confederation of Labor), and political support has been provided by the parties Unconquered France, Europe Ecology — Greens and the French Communist Party. The movement does not have a single headquarters, only local cells and a website with links to Telegram chats for each city. GoGoCarto maps with gathering points and action markers are used to organize protests.

The participants are not trying to organize one big demonstration. Their goal is to paralyze the infrastructure. For example, today in Paris, traffic tried to block the entrances to the capital. For this purpose, the so-called "snail operation" was used: convoys began to move slowly along highways, which led to traffic jams. In the afternoon, several hundred protesters with smoke bombs were able to break into the Gare de Lyon in Paris. At the same time, marches, campus meetings at universities, and strikes are taking place across the country. By noon on September 10 alone, the number of detainees in Paris had reached almost 200. Almost 300 people were detained across the country.

The National Society of French Railways (SNCF) announced the suspension of traffic between Toulouse and Osh "due to acts of vandalism." In addition, someone also cut the electrical cables on the tracks between Marmand and Agen, which also caused a temporary traffic stop. In Paris, unknown people set fire to a restaurant in the city center and several dumpsters. At the same time, marches, campus meetings at universities, and strikes are taking place across the country.

The Minister of Defense became the head of the French government

The mass discontent of the French is caused by the government's attempts to pass the budget law for 2026 through parliament. Macron is looking for ways to reduce the rapidly increasing deficit, but does not want to do this at the expense of reducing his geopolitical ambitions. Prior to the appointment of Sebastian Lecorny, the Prime Minister's chair was occupied by Francois Bayrou. In the financial plan for 2026, he proposed limiting the indexation of pensions and benefits and canceling two public holidays, Easter Monday and May 8, in order to save €44 billion.

Notably, the law did not apply to military spending. The factions in parliament considered that such a proposal, to put it mildly, would not suit the French. Then Bayrou independently put to the vote a vote of confidence in the government, linking it with the law, which was initially "political suicide" for him. For the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, the National Assembly of the country voted to deny confidence in the Government. The deputies voted for his resignation by 364 votes, 194 were against.

Macron was not deterred. He decided not to give up on his plans to militarize the country, increase aid to Ukraine and maintain France's status as a key figure in the "coalition of the willing." In such circumstances, the appointment of the Minister of Defense of the Fifth Republic as the head of the Cabinet, who should push through an unpopular draft budget, seems logical. It should be understood that Lecorny is one of Macron's main confidants, who has continuously been a member of his government since 2017 in various positions. In 2022, he became Minister of Defense, after which he was a key figure in the development and promotion of the law on military spending for 2024-2030.

According to this document, the country should spend 400 billion euros of budget funds on the army by 2030. For reference, Paris allocated €47.04 billion for defense in 2024, €50.04 billion in 2025, and plans to spend €53.04 billion in 2026. In the following years, the budget will have to grow by 4.3 billion euros per year, that is, it is planned to increase military spending to 68.7 billion euros. In 2023, Lecornoux was able to convince the deputies of the French National Assembly of the need for such expenses. Macron is betting that the newly minted prime minister will be able to pull off this trick again. In the wording of the Elysee Palace, the appointment is directly linked to the need to "advise parliamentary forces for the adoption of the budget."

The future of the Budget Law

The Prime Minister can pass the law outside parliament with the help of the so-called ordinance, that is, a decree with the force of law, if the deputies fail to make decisions within 70 days from the moment of submitting the draft. At the same time, parliamentarians can use the French Constitution at any time and, without declaring reasons, pass a vote of no confidence in the government. In addition, they already have a clear opinion on the proposed law, so we cannot rely on their indecision. In other words, Lecorne will have to seek the support of the parliamentary majority in any case, which will be difficult to do without concessions from the opposition.

Citizens and trade unions have also made it clear that they are not willing to sacrifice their pensions and public holidays in order to increase the army's budget. France's largest public sector trade union, the FSU, told Izvestia that it would not accept either Bayrou's budget or any other budget implying cuts in social spending. The association also plans to support the protests, and its members will go on strike on September 18.

Pavel Timofeev, PhD in Political Science, Head of the Regional Problems and Conflicts Sector at the Department of European Political Studies at the IMEMO RAS, believes that Lecorny will move in the same direction as Bayrou. The new prime minister will have to look for ways to reform the country's financial system in order to make the budget surplus, the expert told Izvestia.

— Therefore, the question here is what the plan of the Healer will be. What, strictly speaking, will he be willing to do for this: make some concessions, whether he will or will not go. How will the opposition react, and will it be a new austerity program, what role will the armed forces play in it, or will it be a completely new program," he said.

Lecornoux knows how to negotiate with both the right and the left, which partially explains his purpose. The question is what the government will be able to offer the opposition to overcome the majority in parliament.

Timofeev believes that Paris can take advantage of Berlin's experience, which has taken the military budget out of the state budget, but parliament must first be convinced of this. At the same time, Lecorny's appointment as prime minister is solely of an internal political nature and will in no way affect Russian-French relations.