French unions strike against austerity, pressuring Macron

By Makini Brice and Zhifan Liu

PARIS (Reuters) - Teachers, train drivers, pharmacists and hospital staff went on strike and teenagers blocked their high schools in France on Thursday, part of a day of protests against looming budget cuts.

Unions are calling for the previous government's fiscal plans to be scrapped, for more spending on public services, higher taxes on the wealthy, and for an unpopular change making people work longer to get a pension to be abandoned.

In Paris, many metro lines were set to be suspended for most of the day except for morning and afternoon rush hour. Pupils gathered to block the entrance to some schools.

"Block your high school against austerity," read a placard raised by a student in front of the Lycee Maurice Ravel high school in the French capital.

The social unrest comes as President Emmanuel Macron and his newly appointed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu are facing a political crisis and pressure to bring finances under control in the euro zone's second largest economy.

WORKERS ANGRY OVER FISCAL PLANS

An Interior Ministry source said that as many as 800,000 people were expected to take part in the strikes and protests.

"The workers we represent are angry," the country's main unions said in a joint statement in which they rejected the previous government's "brutal" and "unfair" fiscal plans.

France's budget deficit last year was close to double the EU's 3% ceiling but much as he wants to reduce that, Lecornu - reliant on other parties to push through legislation - will face a political battle to gather parliamentary support for a budget for 2026.

Lecornu's predecessor, Francois Bayrou, was ousted by parliament last week over his plan for a 44 billion euro budget squeeze. The new prime minister has not yet said what he will do with Bayrou's plans, although he has opened the door to making compromises.

"We will continue to mobilise as long as there is no adequate response," CGT union chief Sophie Binet said after meeting with Lecornu earlier this week. "The budget will be decided in the streets."

PROTESTS HIT SCHOOLS, TRAINS

One in three primary school teachers were on strike, the FSU-SNUipp union said.

Regional trains were heavily affected by the strike, while most of the country's high-speed TGV train lines will work, officials said. Protesters gathered to slow down traffic on a highway near the southeastern city of Toulon.

Nuclear production at French utility EDF was slightly down, by 1.1 gigawatts early on Thursday, data from the company showed, as workers lowered power output at the Flamanville 1 reactor.

The farmers' union Confederation Paysanne has also called for mobilisation. Pharmacists are angry over changes affecting their business and the USPO pharmacists' union said a survey it did among pharmacies showed 98% could close for the day.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told reporters early on Thursday that police had already removed some blockades, including in front of bus depots in the Paris region. He warned that he expected as many as 8,000 troublemakers to try to "sow disorder" and clash with police.

Some 80,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed throughout the day, he said. Riot units, drones and armoured vehicles will be on hand.

(Reporting by Zhifan Liu, Makini Brice, Dominique Vidalon, Mathias de Rozario, Juliette Jabkhiro, Gus Trompiz; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Frances Kerry)