Unionists hold a "Stop Austerity" banner Thursday as they lead a demonstration in Paris calling on the government not to implement major public spending cuts in an effort to slash a deficit running at 5.8% of GDP. Photo by Mohammed Badra/EPA
Sept. 18 (UPI) -- France was on Thursday gearing up for nationwide street demonstrations and labor strikes protesting government plans to cut public spending by tens of billions of euros, with more than 80,000 police deployed to prevent violence and damage to property.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, who is just nine days into the job after his predecessor, Francois Bayrou, was ousted after trying to force through $51.7 billion worth of cuts, is battling to get his own debt-slashing 2026 budget through parliament.
As many as 800,000 workers, from teachers to railway workers, were expected to take part in walkouts and 250 marches, adding to the recent political upheaval and mounting fears over a ballooning deficit that saw the country's international creditworthiness downgraded on Friday.
Fitch Ratings cited France's $3.95 trillion national debt, equivalent to 116% of GDP and the third highest among other similarly rated economies, warning that growing "political fragmentation" hindered prospects for improving the situation.
