French student protests add to Macron’s rail strike woes
Anger at president’s plans to make university entry more selective
Growing protests at French universities yesterday added to pressure on President Emmanuel Macron over his sweeping reform agenda, as rail workers pressed on with rolling strikes that are causing havoc for millions of travellers.
Train drivers and other railway staff waged a second day of strikes set to continue two days out of every five until June 28, unless Macron backs down on his plans to overhaul the heavily indebted state rail operator SNCF.
In the meantime, students at two universities in Paris and Lyon blocked campuses in anger at Macron’s plans to make university entry more selective, joining a slew of nationwide sitins that have disrupted classes forweeks.
French unions and left- wingers have consistently called for students and workers to come together to resist Macron in a rerun 50 years later of the famed May 1968 anti- government demonstrations which saw them join forces.
“I’m working for a May 2018,” radical leftist and former presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot told France Inter radio yesterday.
Macron, a 40- year- old exinvestment banker, has vowed to reshape France with farreaching reforms designed to increase economic growth and cut mounting public debt.
After storming to power last May at the head of a new centrist party, he insists he has amandate for change.
He managed to push through controversial labour reforms in October, but a series of protests against his various shake- ups have drawn tens of thousands onto the streets.
On Tuesday, Air France staff, garbage collectors and some energy workers staged separate walkouts along with train drivers, adding to a growing atmosphere of industrial discontent.