❓WHAT HAPPENED: France has been hit by a wave of “Block Everything” protests, a social media-driven anti-government campaign involving strikes and demonstrations across the country.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Protesters supported by major unions, including the CGT and Sud-Raid, clashed with police, while the French government, led by Emmanuel Macron and newly-installed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, attempts to address the unrest.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Protests began early Wednesday, with key demonstrations in Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille, and other cities, expected to continue with further strikes planned for September 18.
💬KEY QUOTE: “This is not a citizens’ movement in any way. It’s been hijacked by the ultra-Left, and some are determined to carry out violent actions,” complained outgoing Interior Minister Bruino Retailleau.
🎯IMPACT: Travel disruptions, clashes with police, and widespread unrest are further undermining President Emmanuel Macron’s legitimacy, after the French National Assembly voted out his former prime minister, François Bayrou, earlier this week.
France has descended into street turmoil as an anti-government “Block Everything” campaign of strikes and protests sweeps the country. By 8 AM on September 10, up to 50 arrests were reported in Paris, with police stating that “most of those taken into custody were threatening public order.” Protesters attempted to cripple vital transport links, including targeting the Eurostar hub at Gare du Nord, and clashed with riot police, erecting barricades and obstructing road junctions in cities such as Bordeaux and Marseille.
The unrest is driven by anger towards President Emmanuel Macron and his freshly appointed Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, who replaced François Bayrou after Bayrou’s government collapsed following a confidence vote. Bayrou’s minority administration lost the vote on Monday, 364 to 194, bringing down yet another government in what is now a near-permanent cycle of instability under Macron. Bayrou is now the fifth prime minister to fall in under two years.
“This is not a citizens’ movement in any way. It’s been hijacked by the ultra-Left, and some are determined to carry out violent actions. There is an insurrectional mood,” Bruno Retailleau, the Interior Minister in the outgoing government, said.
Prime Minister Lecornu, a Macron loyalist who formerly served as Defense Minister, takes over amid deep parliamentary divisions, with no clear majority. He must wrestle with a fractured assembly to push through a divisive 2026 budget amid soaring national debt, still lingering at about 114 percent of GDP —with no guarantee that Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally party and a bloc of far-left parties, which both have more lawmakers than Macron’s allies, will not vote him out as well.
The “Block Everything” campaign, spearheaded by unions like the CGT and Sud‑Raid, promises to blockade fuel depots, slow traffic via go‑slow operations, and stage demonstrations in city centers. Some online messages even advocate taking food from supermarkets without paying, while Sud‑Raid has urged members to carry on, saying, “The fall of the government is good, but it’s insufficient.”
Macron’s office says the president wants Lecornu to engage in talks with parliamentary opponents to forge a compromise on the budget and other contentious policies.
🚨🇫🇷 FLASH INFO | Des affrontements ont éclaté entre policiers et manifestants devant le lycée Hélène-Boucher à Paris. (@JulesRavel1) pic.twitter.com/e7aybEYQyv
— Cpasdeslol (@cpasdeslol_X) September 10, 2025
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