France hit by protests and strikes over funding cuts

Protesters hit France with transport strikes, demonstrations and traffic blockades yesterday, pitting the power of the streets against Emmanuel Macron's government and its proposals to cut funding for public services.

- NICOLAS GARRIGA, THOMAS ADAMSON and JOHN LEICESTER

The first whiff of police teargas came before daybreak, with scuffles between riot officers and protesters in Paris.

Planned nationwide demonstrations, from France's biggest cities to small towns, were expected to mobilise hundreds of thousands of marchers and voice anger about mounting poverty, sharpening inequality and growing struggles for low-paid workers and others to make ends meet.

"We say 'no' to the government. We've had enough. There's no more money, a high cost of living," striking transport worker Nadia Belhoum said at a before-dawn protest targeting a Paris bus depot. She said people were "being squeezed like a lemon even if there's no more juice".

Unions that called strikes are pushing for the abandonment of proposed budget cuts, social welfare freezes, and other belt-tightening measures that opponents contend will further hit the pockets of low-paid and middle-class workers and which triggered the collapse of successive governments that sought to push through savings.