Hundreds arrested in France while protests “block everything” erupt across the country

French police arrested hundreds of demonstrators on Wednesday while “blocking everything” demonstrations broke out across the country, the crowd closing the roads, lighting the fires and competing with the authorities.

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

“A Prime Minister has just been ousted and immediately we get another from the right,” said student Baptiste Sagot, 21 on Wednesday at the Associated Press. “They try to ensure that workers, young students, retirees, all people in difficulty, have every effort instead of taxing wealth.”

Groups of demonstrators who have tried several times to block the Paris belt during the morning rush hour were dispersed by the police using tear gas. Elsewhere in the capital, the demonstrators accumulated garbage cans and launched objects to the police. The firefighters were called in the downtown district of Châtelet after a fire broke out in a restaurant, threatening to spread to an adjacent building.

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The police react after a projectile struck a coffee and set it on fire in Paris, in France, Wednesday, September 10, 2025. (Tom Nicholson / Getty Images)

Parisian police reported 183 arrests in the middle of the afternoon, with more than 100 other people taken in police custody elsewhere in France, according to the count of the Ministry of the Interior.

The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, said that the demonstrators had burned a bus in the city of Rennes, Reuters reported.

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

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A demonstrator is seen to come up against a police officer in Paris, in France, Wednesday, September 10, 2025. (Jerome Gilles / Nurphoto via Getty Images)

The “blocks is the” block letters “or” block Everything “, the movement gained momentum during the summer on social networks and in encrypted cats, according to the AP.

His call for a day of blockages, strikes, boycotts, demonstrations and other acts of protest came while Bayrou prepared plans to massively reduce public spending by $ 51 billion to brake the growing deficit of France and billions of debts.

The demonstrators meet to block the Cadiz viaduct during the “Block Everything” events in Caen, France, Wednesday September 10, 2025. (Lou Benoist / AFP via Getty Images)

Macron had appointed Bayrou in December following a series of resignations during the year, when three other prime ministers left the first job.

Several reports noted on Monday that at the end of the first quarter of 2025, France’s public debt was 114% of its GDP.

The demonstrators of the “Block Everything” movement hide from a water cannon behind an umbrella in Lille, in the north of France, Wednesday, September 10, 2025. (AP / Jean-Francois Badias)

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On Wednesday, around 80,000 police officers were deployed across France to manage the demonstrations, the AP reported.

Caitlin McFall of Fox News Digital and the Associated Press contributed to this report.