France Strike Day: 600,000 March Nationwide as Unions Claim 1.6 Million; Lecornu Calls Wage Talks

The Monument to the Republic at Place de la République in Paris, where the Nov. 5 march began (file photo). Photo: Léopold Morice / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

France’s interior ministry said nearly 600,000 people marched across the country on Thursday, Nov. 5, in the largest day of the autumn’s cost-of-living protests, while the CGT union put turnout at close to 1.6 million, The Rio Times reported, citing both counts. Hours later, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s office called unions and employers to wage talks on Monday.

How big was the Nov. 5 strike?

The two counts are far apart, as they usually are in France. The interior ministry’s provisional figure of nearly 600,000 compares with the 550,000 it counted on Oct. 17, the previous peak of the movement. At 1 p.m. Paris time the ministry counted 270,000 people in 180 marches outside the capital, while the CGT said more than 250,000 had marched in 73 cities by then.

• Bordeaux: the prefecture counted 21,000 marchers; the CGT said 120,000.
• Lyon: riot police fired tear gas at a demonstration, according to Reuters as cited by Al Jazeera. The Rhône prefecture said 24 people were arrested and five shops were damaged.
• Paris: the main march left Place de la République at 2 p.m. for Place de la Nation, after authorities refused organizers’ planned route through central Paris, ABC News reported. No Paris turnout figure or national arrest total had been released by Thursday afternoon.

Midday strike rates were 9.89% in the state civil service, 4.60% in local government and 3.93% among hospital staff, according to the public accounts ministry. About one in six teachers was expected to strike, by education ministry estimates. The final count is still to come; our France Protest Tracker will update turnout and arrests as official figures are published.

Who called the strike, and what do they want?

France’s five main unions, the CFDT, CGT, FO, Unsa and FSU, called Thursday’s strike jointly, The Local reported, and the Yellow Vests (Gilets Jaunes) movement called its own “5 novembre du peuple.” Their demands include a higher minimum wage, higher pay across the board, stronger purchasing power, protection of public services and a fairer share of wealth. CGT leader Sophie Binet urged workers to widen the strike and called for a rewrite of the draft national budget, which she described as catastrophic for the country, according to ABC News.

Rail unions, urban transport workers, hospital staff, teachers, La Poste and central and local government employees were all called out. The Local reported that high-speed TGV trains faced only slight disruption, with more cancellations on regional TER and Intercités lines and reduced service on several Paris RER lines, while the Paris Metro was expected to run normally.

How the government is responding

Lecornu will hold a “conférence sociale” with unions and employers at Matignon, the prime minister’s office, on Monday, Nov. 9, to offer answers on wages and purchasing power, his office said on Thursday. No specific pay offer has been announced, and it was not yet known whether all unions would attend.

The government has already made concessions on schools, where the movement began. Education Minister Edouard Geffray said 836 planned job cuts in public secondary schools will be canceled and 500 high school teaching posts created, with second-year high school classes capped at 28 students in the least advantaged half of high schools from 2027, according to ABC News. Lecornu has also set aside about $4.4 billion for local authorities to renovate schools.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez had warned of more than 220 protests and deployed about 70,000 police. President Emmanuel Macron held a defense and security meeting on Wednesday to keep public order, Al Jazeera reported, and has said on X that protest is a right but “no anger can justify violence, looting, or attacks on our institutions.”

Six weeks of unrest

The protests began in September as student demonstrations over conditions in public high schools and widened into anger over living costs and years of public spending cuts. On Oct. 17, the government acknowledged that police had lost control in places as some demonstrators attacked businesses and public buildings, while protesters accused police of excessive force, ABC News reported. Several cities then imposed local curfews, and Marseille saw significant looting in late October. A G7 foreign ministers’ meeting was moved from Marseille to Paris at the last minute, Reuters reported.

Turnout had been falling before Thursday: our report on the third weekend of protests counted 320,000 marchers and 565 arrests. For protests elsewhere on the continent, see the Europe Protest Tracker.

What happens next

• Nov. 6–7: the Yellow Vests have called for further action. Most unions have not announced a new strike date, though the FSU teachers’ union has said one day may not be enough, according to The Local.
• Nov. 9: Lecornu’s wage conference at Matignon.
• Budget: the CGT and other unions are pressing for the draft national budget to be revised.
• April 2027: France holds its presidential election. Macron cannot run again, and polls favor the National Rally’s Marine Le Pen, who launched her campaign in October and has promised to restore the rule of law.

Turnout figures are provisional and from the French interior ministry, prefectures and the CGT, which count differently. Figures are as reported Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5, 2026, and may change. More world news from The Boston Report.

Sources

• The Rio Times: France calls pay talks after Nov. 5 strike day (citing the French interior ministry, prime minister’s office, CGT, prefectures and public accounts ministry)
• ABC News: France bracing for 220 protests nationwide Thursday, interior minister says
• Al Jazeera: Workers strike across France, hundreds of thousands expected to protest
• The Local France: French protests: what to expect from November 5th strikes