French cops pushed to the limit.
While not quite a general strike, as they are so fond of, today the French faced strikes by several professional categories.
Higher education and research staff, plus the inevitable students; health, social, and medico-social workers; firefighters; labor inspectors and other public-sector agents; and fishermen.
That’s quite a lot of categories, but in terms of France that’s like a normal Tuesday, with one exception: today, the police officers were also out in force, protesting.
Euronews reported:
“Thousands of French police officers took to the streets of Paris to protest against their working conditions on Tuesday. The protest — led by the Alliance Police Nationale union — began at the Champs-Élysées and culminated at the National Assembly.
After the march, union representatives headed to the Interior Ministry to share their grievances — they subsequently told reporters that the meeting showed positive signs authorities were taking their grievances into account.
Mounting anger among police officers has been fuelled by a range of issues: including discontent around the special police duty allowance (ISSP), their ‘risk bonus’, which has not gone up since 2019.”
Watch:
🔴 DIRECT – #Paris : Manifestation des policiers en cours.
— FLASH INFO Ile-de-France (@info_Paris_IDF) September 15, 2026
👉 Après avoir lancé un appel à la grève, les syndicats Alliance police et Un1té seront reçus par le ministre de l'Intérieur Laurent Nuñez ce mardi. (🎥 Luc Auffret) #PoliceNationale pic.twitter.com/WQbkBuVvMH
Alliance Police Nationale union also calls for more resources for administrative, technical and scientific staff.
“Ahead of the protest, one officer working in Rennes described a situation, which he qualified as ‘alarming’. He condemned staff shortages, equipment problems and the lack of decent pay: ‘we need equipment, we need manpower, we need recognition in our pay’, he said, arguing that working conditions ‘are getting worse and worse’.”
France24 reported (translated from the French):
“’The demands are simple: today we are constantly told that we consider and respect the police officer but in terms of salary increases, there is nothing’, Fabien Vanhemelryck, secretary general of Alliance, which is mainly made up of peacekeepers and deputy police officers (contract agents), told the press.
[…] The procession set off shortly after noon from the Champs-Elysées Avenue to reach the National Assembly under a shower of blue confetti and a concert of whistles.
‘We’re fed up! The profession is suffering, colleagues are no longer making ends meet at the end of the month and the specificities are not recognised’, complains a Corsican police officer who wished to testify anonymously, like the other officers interviewed by AFP.”