Emmanuel Macron's presidency faces first major street protests
12 Sep 2017 4:34 PM GMT
Paris: The French president, Emmanuel Macron, faced the first major street protests of his leadership on Tuesday as one of the country's biggest trade unions demonstrates against his overhaul of labour laws.
The leftwing CGT, France's second biggest trade union, is leading scores of protests across France, with public sector workers, train staff and energy sector workers expected to join.
It is the first test of whether opposition to Macron's pro-business plans to loosen labour rules could translate into a broader street protest movement, which the president is determined to face down.Four thousand strikes have been called by the CGT with rail workers, students and civil servants urged to protest in cities from Paris to Marseille and Toulouse. In Paris on Tuesday morning, the transport disruption was limited to two commuter train lines. High-speed train-lines and the Eurostar were running normally. Air traffic controllers had also been urged to strike, and Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair said it had cancelled 110 flights scheduled for Tuesday.
In a separate move, funfair operators — angry over unrelated fairground reforms voted in by the previous government — blocked traffic on the outskirts of several cities on Tuesday morning.
The CGT's secretary general, Philippe Martinez, said more than 180 demonstrations against the new labour laws were planned across the country, warning that he sensed "very strong discontent". The CGT's main street march through Paris will take place on Tuesday afternoon.
Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker and centrist who was elected in May against the far-right Le Pen, is seeking to style himself as a pro-business reformer who would never give in to street protests.
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