Tens of thousands of people protested in France Thursday against public spending cuts, as President Emmanuel Macron was expected to name a new government this weekend, sources said.
Macron, who has just 18 months left in power and is enduring his worst-ever popularity levels, has struggled to pull France out of a worsening political and economic crisis.
The president is set to put together a leaner team under Sebastien Lecornu, his seventh prime minister, sources told AFP.
Heeding a call from trade unions, some 600,000 protesters staged a new day of demonstrations across the country, the leftist CGT union said. The interior ministry put the turnout at 195,000 people.
By comparison, trade unions said more than a million people took to the streets two weeks ago, when many schools were closed and public transport stalled.
"You can feel that the country is changing," hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon said at a rally in Paris.
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