According to authorities, on September 18th, 500,000 people took to the streets across France. Half a million. For the organizers, however, the number was a full million. In any case, the broad participation of citizens in the protests was mainly driven by workers’ unions, to demonstrate against the government’s austerity measures. And this may be just the beginning.
THE NEW PROTESTS PLANNED IN FRANCE
The unions, in fact, after securing a meeting with the new French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu last Wednesday, and leaving the discussion unsatisfied, have called for another national day of strikes and demonstrations on October 2nd. Marylise Léon, leader of the Cfdt union, was blunt: “The Prime Minister did not provide clear answers to the workers’ expectations. It is a missed opportunity.”
LECORNU (AND MACRON) UNDER PRESSURE
The unions, buoyed by the success of their protests, are pressing on and continue to put pressure on Lecornu, who already has to fight for his political survival as the fifth prime minister appointed in less than two years. This pressure is also directed primarily at President Emmanuel Macron, who appointed the various prime ministers and is effectively responsible for the government’s policy.
The Prime Minister’s office, after the meeting with the unions, issued a statement seeking mediation, saying it is “fully aware of the concerns and anxieties of the country’s workers, to which appropriate responses must be found.” For this reason, it said it is ready to send letters to unions and employers to seek dialogue on various issues, from working conditions to social protection. Yes, because employers also seem intent on taking to the streets to make their voices heard.
WHAT DRIVES THE PROTESTS
Those protesting want the austerity program (fiscal and otherwise) of former Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to be completely abandoned. A heavy budget draft for which Bayrou himself had warned – in Parliament, before the vote that would dismiss him – of the necessary sacrifices for France. The unions’ ultimatum to Lecornu, not heeded so far by the new prime minister, was to “abandon the increase of the retirement age to 64, cancel the reforms of unemployment benefits, block the planned cuts of 3,000 jobs in the public sector,” Euronews recalls.
THE FRENCH ECONOMIC PICTURE
The problem is that the overall economic situation of France is anything but rosy. Last year, Paris’s deficit was practically double the 3% limit theoretically set by the European Union. This will likely happen again in 2025, as the estimate is 5.6%. The debt-to-GDP ratio is rising and approaches 116%, a record percentage, all due to public debt, a “monster” for France, which has reached 3,345 billion euros. So much so that rating agencies, such as S&P and Fitch, maintain negative outlooks.
The economic causes of the French crisis are structural, including constant deindustrialization, insufficient technological investments, and the failure to regain competitiveness. And now, as Bloomberg highlights, France is replacing Italy as the poster child of fiscal crisis in the Old Continent. Unlike Italy, however, the French really take to the streets in these cases.
