Tens of thousands of workers in France take to the streets to protest against the government

Tens of thousands of civil servants, teachers, transport employees and other unionized workers in France walked off the job Thursday to take part in the demonstration. last round massive economic protests who agitated the European nation, expressing frustration over low wages and high costs of living.

What was billed as a national day of action began with nearly 200 peaceful rallies across the country.

The General Confederation of Labor, or GCL, one of France’s main unions, said around 1.6 million people took to the streets, while the French Interior Ministry put the figure at around 600,000.

The protests even briefly closed the Eiffel Tower.

“Our salaries no longer allow us to live,” Sophie Binet, director of GCL, told CBS News when asked why the ongoing protests were taking center stage in France.

Binet urged his supporters to continue the protests and accused French President Emmanuel Macron of not hearing people’s calls for help.

“Because he thinks he knows everything on his own,” Binet said of Macron. “Because he works for the rich, for multinationals and for finance, not for workers.”

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called for a meeting with the unions on Monday, but another demonstration is already planned next Saturday.

Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb, told CBS News that Macron is “incapable of providing answers,” saying protesters are “fed up with having an increasingly privileged society, the strongest in the world, which leaves behind an ocean of inequality.”

Several protesters told CBS News they want to see the French government reduce its national military and police spending and increase funding for social services.

Thursday’s rallies turned violent in some areas, ending with police using tear gas to chase away demonstrators. Clashes broke out during several demonstrations.

Protesters set fire to a car in Lyon, central France, and burned objects in the streets of Paris.

Anti-government protests started for the first time at the end of September among high school and university students in Paris who were protesting against poor school conditions, the shortage of teachers and infrastructure problems. They have quickly spread and gained wider support, with local surveys showing that almost six in ten people in France support them.

However, in many cases the protests have degenerated into violencewith buildings and monuments burned, small businesses vandalized and clashes with police that led to thousands of arrests. At the height of the violence last month, curfews were declared in several cities.