Protest Republic: rallies in France have become nationwide

On September 18, France was hit by a new wave of protests. It is already known that more than 55 people were detained in different cities of the country. As during the first wave of strikes on September 10, the rallies are being held to protest the austerity measures that were proposed by the government in July this year amid an increasingly difficult economic situation. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Protests in France on September 18: what is known

Back in May 2025, calls for a "lockdown of the country" began to gain momentum in France. The first demonstrations began on September 10, but it was already known then that they would continue on the 18th. On Thursday morning, people began to take to the streets, at the same time it was reported that the number of demonstrators was about 1.2 thousand people, but the dissenters continued to arrive.

At the time of publication of the article, the strikes had not acquired a large-scale character, however, it is expected that from 600 to 900 thousand demonstrators will take part in them.

"The latest data from the gendarmerie as of 10 a.m. (11 a.m. Moscow time) indicates 252 scattered actions, especially in the west of the country. At the moment, there are 28.5 thousand demonstrators," the TF1 TV channel says.

According to the Interior Ministry, also at 10 a.m., the number of protesters was only 10,000.

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The main reasons are the political crisis and the growing national debt.

Protests are taking place in different cities:

— In Marseille (south-east), demonstrators are known to have blocked the Eurolinks arms manufacturing plant. This was stated by a deputy of the National Assembly (the lower house of the French parliament). Gabrielle wrote on her X social network page: "Bravo to the demonstrators who are currently blocking the Eurolinks arms manufacturing plant in Marseille, which sells military equipment to Israel." They also blocked the entrance to one of the car tunnels. In total, there were about 18 cases of blocking of transport arteries in the city. After the police intervened, traffic was restored.;

— in Chambery (south-east), protesters on bicycles blocked a roundabout;

— Two highways were blocked at the entrance to the city of Toulon (south);

— near Caen (north), the demonstrators tried to block one of the transport interchanges, but the police managed to disperse them.;

— In Lyon (center), protesters tried to block the ring road, which they also failed to do due to police intervention. Later, the demonstrators were able to block one of the highways surrounding the city.;

— in Toulouse (south), there was an attempt to block the railway tracks, which was prevented by the police;

— in Paris (south), the tram tracks near the school were blocked. The entrance to one of the bus parks in the east of the capital was also blocked. It was possible to unlock it only after police intervention and the use of tear gas.

Let's block everything: A wave of protests has swept France

The demonstrations began after the appointment of Sebastian Lecorny to the post of Prime Minister.

90% of pharmacies across the country are also closed due to the protests.

According to the latest data, 58 people were detained, 11 of them in the Ile-de-France metropolitan region.

To ensure order, the Interior Ministry will deploy more than 80,000 police and gendarmes, as well as armored vehicles and drones.

Reasons for the protests in France on September 18

As on September 10, the wave of protest actions that swept the cities of France was caused by dissatisfaction with the economic course of the authorities. The French were most outraged by the introduction of the draft budget for 2026 in July. Among the initiatives were increased spending cuts in various areas (€43.8 billion instead of the previously announced €40 billion); refusal to index pensions and social benefits; freezing the costs of government departments, with the exception of the Ministry of Defense, which, on the contrary, was planned to allocate an additional € 3.5 billion due to the deterioration of the global security situation.

Philippe de Vell, a lawyer, member of the Paris Bar Association, and head of the doctoral program at Descartes University of Paris, explained to Izvestia that the protests are organized by leftist forces who are trying to influence French President Emmanuel Macron in this way.

"This is a social protest organized by the country's left-wing force, all left-wing political parties and trade unions. They wanted to hold a large-scale protest about the social status of the working class in France. And this is quite normal, because this is their task," de Vell said.

According to the leftists, the government should be headed by their representative. They are trying to change Macron's position by "street pressure," the lawyer notes.

Russia's influence on the protests in France

Russian Ambassador to Paris Alexei Meshkov said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel that Russia could be blamed for the growing internal tensions in France: "First of all, I want to say that the Russian Federation has nothing to do with the turmoil that is taking place in France today. I do not rule out that today or tomorrow they will start accusing us of this. Everything that happens [in France] is internal, man—made."

He also added that the protests in the country are unlikely to lead to a change in foreign policy, but their outcome will be clear at the end of the day.