France Violence: 200 Arrested, 80,000 Police Deployed As New PM Sebastien Lecornu Faces 'Block Everything' Protests

(MENAFN- Live Mint) France's new Prime Minister, Sebastien Lecornu, the fifth in two years, took office on Wednesday amid sprawling anti-government“Block Everything” protests.

Lecornu , the loyalist picked by President Emmanuel Macron, most recently served as his defence minister. At midday, he arrived at the prime minister's residence, where he met with former prime minister Francois Bayrou .

Bayrou was ousted by Parliament on Monday over plans to trim the country's outsized deficit.

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The new prime minister may use his first speech to outline a plan for reaching consensus with an unruly Parliament to pass a slimmed-down budget for next year.

He must submit a full draft of the 2026 budget to Parliament by 7 October.

The hard left has vowed to try to topple Lecornu with an immediate no-confidence motion, while the far-right National Rally (RN) has signalled a tentative willingness to work with him on the budget - but only if its budgetary demands are met.

“His budget will be RN or his government will not be,” RN lawmaker Laure Lavalette wrote on X on Tuesday.

Lecornu also faces a challenge in uniting the Socialists, who want to water down budget cuts and tax the rich, with his former party, the Republicans, who are dead-set against any tax rises.

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Meanwhile, thousands of people across France took to the roads as part of the so-called“Block Everything” protests.

The protest movement started online and gathered steam over the summer, causing widespread hot spots of disruption.

The protesters have expressed discontent with President Macron and the proposed budget cuts.

Around 80,000 police personnel were deployed nationwide to contain agitators who disrupted traffic, burned rubbish bins and clashed with security forces.

French interior minister Bruno Retailleau said nearly 200 people were arrested in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide protests.

A bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes, and damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the southwest, he said.

Retailleau also alleged that protesters were attempting to create“a climate of insurrection”.

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