France faces widespread walkouts and marches over living costs and budget cuts

France is preparing for major disruptions as trade unions orchestrate a nationwide day of strike action and demonstrations over worsening living costs, education grievances and planned public spending reductions.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets across the country. Walkouts are anticipated to affect multiple sectors, including healthcare, air traffic control, postal services, ports and schools, alongside major transport networks.

National rail operator SNCF warned passengers to anticipate disruption across regional train routes as well as parts of the greater Paris commuter network. Dock workers have similarly indicated that activity at French ports will face interference. In the education sector, the national ministry estimated that roughly 18 percent of nursery and primary school educators would walk off the job, while union representatives anticipate significant involvement from secondary and private school instructors.

The day of action comes amid a wave of demonstrations initiated by secondary school pupils, who have blockaded facilities to protest run-down infrastructure and crowded classrooms. Students have dismissed government proposals, such as regional loan programmes for building repairs and selective limits on class sizes, as insufficient. University students have also taken part by blockading university faculties.

The protests add to severe political difficulties for President Emmanuel Macron in the concluding stages of his presidency. The administration is struggling to steer an austerity budget through a fractured parliament, even as French public debt nears 120 percent of economic output. Rail labour groups released a joint statement arguing that the state's proposed fiscal curbs would exacerbate poverty, curtail social welfare, cap public sector earnings and stall funding earmarked for ecological transitions.

Tensions have also mounted over state security measures ahead of the rallies. Civil rights advocates and trade union leaders have voiced sharp criticism over intensive policing, curfews in select locations, and municipal decisions in cities like Lyon, Toulouse and Rennes that restrict march routes away from central districts.

Sophie Binet, secretary general of the CGT union, warned of what she described as a dangerous authoritarian turn by the executive. Marylise Léon, leader of the CFDT union, similarly insisted that the core value of peaceful protest relies on public visibility.

The deepening unrest unfolds against an uneasy electoral landscape, with far-right political figure Marine Le Pen maintaining strong support in polling ahead of the upcoming presidential election to determine Macron's successor.