France arrests hundreds as ‘Block Everything’ protests erupt across country

French police arrested hundreds of protesters Wednesday as “Block Everything” demonstrations erupted across the country, with crowds shutting down roads, lighting fires and clashing with authorities. 

The government’s interior ministry announced 295 arrests in the first hours of what was a planned day of nationwide demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron, budget cuts and other complaints. France’s government suffered a major setback Monday when Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote, forcing his resignation and replacement by Sébastien Lecornu. 

“One Prime minister has just been ousted and straight away we get another from the right,” student Baptiste Sagot, 21, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “They’re trying to make working people, young students, retirees, all people in difficulty, bear all the effort instead of taxing wealth.” 

Groups of protesters who repeatedly tried to block Paris’ beltway during the morning rush hour were dispersed by police using tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, protesters piled up trash cans and hurled objects at police officers. Firefighters were called to the downtown Châtelet neighborhood after a fire broke out in a restaurant, threatening to spread to an adjacent building. 

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Parisian police reported 183 arrests by mid-afternoon, with more than 100 other people taken into police custody elsewhere in France, according to the interior ministry count. 

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said protesters torched a bus in the city of Rennes, Reuters reported. 

Road blockades, traffic slowdowns and other protests were widespread – from the southern port city of Marseille to Lille and Caen in the north, and from Nantes and Rennes in the west to Grenoble and Lyon in the southeast. 

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The “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything,” movement gathered momentum over the summer on social media and in encrypted chats, according to the AP.  

Its call for a day of blockades, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and other acts of protest came as Bayrou was preparing plans to massively slash public spending by $51 billion to rein in France’s growing deficit and trillions in debts.  

Macron had appointed Bayrou in December following a slew of resignations over the year when three other prime ministers left the top job.  

Multiple reports on Monday noted that by the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt equated to 114% of its GDP. 

Around 80,000 police were deployed across France on Wednesday to handle the protests, the AP reported. 

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and The Associated Press contributed to this report.