Thousands protest in Paris over soaring prices
STORY: The leader of hard-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), Jean-Luc Melenchon, marched alongside this year's Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Annie Ernaux. He called a general strike for Tuesday (October 18).
Melenchon followed the footsteps of four unions – but not France's biggest, the moderate CFDT – which have called for strikes and protests on Tuesday for wage increases.
The four unions also called the protests to help protect the right to strike, after the government ordered the requisitioning of some oil refinery workers, a move seen by unions as a violation of their constitutional rights.
"We have a lot of reasons to be here today. And a government that doesn't listen to us, that continues to favor the same people and that asks for effort from the same people. At some point this has to stop," said protester Natalie Meriau.
