On Sunday the 16th of October, thousands of protestors flooded the streets of Paris to show their outrage with rising prices and unprecedentedly high costs of living and in an attempt to gain the attention of President Emmanuel Macron. This march was organised by left-wing opponents of Macron comprising of a coalition of left-wing parties, amidst an extremely and increasingly tense political atmosphere illustrated by a number of strikes at fuel and oil refineries, nuclear plants and now, various transport strikes planned too. The effect of the high costs of living have been compounded by the effects of worker strikes at oil refineries as they are fighting for higher wages in line with inflation, and in line with the surging profits of energy companies. Because of this, gas pumps across France have been left fully or partly dry, meaning that drivers have been forced to line up for HOURS at stations and drive to the next.

Amongst the protestors, notably, were the leader of hard-left party La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Melenchon and 2022 Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux. Many believing that Macron’s leadership is hurling France into utter chaos, approximately 200,000 protestors marched in Paris with the protests remaining largely under control with the exception of a few bins on fire and doors being smashed.