Some 540 held at French anti-austerity protests as new PM sworn in

Anti-austerity protests in France drew some 200,000 participants and resulted in around 540 arrests on Wednesday, the French Interior Ministry said, as the country's new prime minister took office amid a serious political crisis.

Sébastien Lecornu called for a change in politics as he was sworn in, warning at the handover of power in Paris that "there will have to be ruptures, not only in form, not only in method, but also in content."

Lecornu succeeds François Bayrou, who resigned on Tuesday after losing a vote of confidence in the National Assembly over his austerity budget plans.

The proposals, and public anger with the deeply unpopular President Emmanuel Macron, prompted a wave of demonstrations on Wednesday held under the slogan "Block Everything," with scenes turning violent in various parts of the country.

The origins of the decentralized movement are unclear, but its anti-austerity agenda has been embraced by left-wing parties, unions and supporters of the yellow vests protests, which rocked France in 2018.

The CGT union said that up to a quarter of a million people joined the demonstrations on Wednesday.

The Interior Ministry said late on Wednesday that 23 security forces were injured and more than 540 people detained, including 211 in Paris.

The demonstrations grew in size over the course of the day, with numerous radical activists taking part.

There were many fires on public streets and "disruptions to public order," the ministry said, while protesters attempted to storm the Gare du Nord train station in Paris.

A fire broke out on a building facade in the capital, while a large shopping centre in the city centre was closed due to the heated atmosphere.

Videos showed violent clashes, as demonstrators set up blockades at secondary schools, bus depots and streets in cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Toulouse.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that the movement was not a citizens' initiative and that it had been taken over by far-left extremists.

The situation was particularly tense in Paris and the cities of Nantes in the west and Rennes in the north-west of the country, where there were attacks on security forces, the ministry added.

Lecornu promises 'creative' solutions

The nationwide demonstrations were a clear signal of public discontent with France's leadership, which has undergone a period of flux since Macron called snap parliamentary elections last summer and has failed to address a looming budgetary emergency.

The new prime minister, who was named by President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, said he wanted to meet party representatives and trade unions in the coming days.

Lecornu - who previously served as defence minister and is considered a close ally of the president - faces the difficult task of finding majorities in the National Assembly, which is divided between Macron's centrist camp, Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and the left-wing parties.

Nonetheless, Lecornu promised to the French population: "We will make it," adding that there was "no impossible path."

His comments were notably brief due to the protests. "This instability and the political and parliamentary crisis we are experiencing call for humility and sobriety," he said.

However, he said that the gap between citizens' expectations and the political situation must be closed.

"To do that, we're also going to have to change, to be more creative, sometimes more technical, more serious in the way we work with our opponents," the 39-year-old said.