00:01French budget cut strikes turned violent in Paris on Thursday afternoon
00:05with hundreds of thousands of people joining strikes and demonstrations.
00:09Protesters join trade unions holding a day of strike action
00:13to pressure the country's new Prime Minister, Sébastien Le Corneau,
00:17to rethink a package of budget cuts and take action on wages, pension and public services.
00:24We have a government who doesn't listen to us and does the opposite of what the population needs.
00:31A government who is fleeing its citizens, a government who greatly reprime its population.
00:39It is important that everyone is mobilising for the French population who wants to be dignified
00:44and who wants to bring to others their dignity.
00:47Le Corneau quickly walked back an unpopular proposal to scrap two public holidays.
00:55However, trade unions have raised concern that other elements of the plan,
00:58including a welfare spending freeze, would be maintained.
01:02France is witnessing one of its largest protest movements in years
01:08as hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of the country
01:14against the government's announced austerity measures.
01:18Across the country, strikes and protests disrupted transport, schools and even hospitals.
01:25By the end of the day, the mood had shifted here in Paris.
01:29What began as a largely peaceful protest ended with quite a few intense clashes.
01:36A few dozen individuals dressed in black hurled projectiles at police,
01:42some of them even striking other demonstrators and journalists.
01:47Police responded with several charges and heavy use of tear gas and stun grenades
01:53to try to disperse the crowd.
01:55The Interior Ministry said that about half a million people demonstrated nationwide,
02:02a figure far lower than the more than one million protestors announced by France's trade unions.
02:10Of course, the
Comments