Sebastien Lecornu appointment comes as France prepares for protests and strikes over the prospect of spending cuts
Emmanuel Macron appoints his third prime minister in a year
According to the Associated Press (AP), the interior minister announced nearly 200 arrests in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide protests in France.
Although falling short of its self-declared intention to ‘block everything’, the protest movement that started online and gathered steam over the summer caused widespread hotspots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly made arrests, reports the AP.
Interior minister Bruno Retailleau said a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes and that damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the south-west. He alleged that protesters were attempting to create “a climate of insurrection”.
France’s new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu takes office on Wednesday with the country facing a day of protests that are expected to see disruption to transport, education and other services in a show of grassroots anger against president Emmanuel Macron.