Paris: Paris police clashed with protesters for a third night on Saturday as thousands marched across the country amid anger over the government pushing through a rise in the state pension age without a parliamentary vote. The growing unrest and strikes have presented President Emmanuel Macron with the biggest challenge to his authority since the so-called “gillettes johns” (yellow vests) protests four years ago.
“Macron, resign!” and “Macron is going to break, we are going to win,” protesters chanted at the Place d’Italie in southern Paris. Riot police used tear gas and clashed with some people in the crowd as trash cans were set on fire.
Municipal authorities banned rallies on Paris’ central Place de la Concorde and the nearby Champs-Élysées on Saturday night after demonstrations resulted in 61 arrests the previous night. There were 81 arrests on Saturday night.
Earlier in the French capital, a group of students and activists from the “Revolution Permanente” collective stormed the Forum des Halles shopping mall, waving banners calling for a general strike and shouting “Paris stand up, rise up”. The video has been shown on the media.
BFM television also showed pictures of ongoing demonstrations in cities such as Compiègne in the north, Nantes in the west and Marseille in the south. In Bordeaux, in the southwest, police fired tear gas against protesters who had set fires.
“Reform must be implemented … violence cannot be tolerated,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisien newspaper.
A broad coalition of France’s main unions has said it will continue to try to press for a U-turn on the changes. A day of nationwide industrial action is scheduled for Thursday.
Garbage piles up on the streets of Paris after crews swung into action.
About 37% of operating staff at TotalEnergies’ (TTEF.PA) refineries and depots – at sites including Fezin in southeast France and Normandy in the north – were on strike on Saturday, a company spokesman said. The rolling strike continued on the railways.
While eight days of nationwide protests and several local industrial actions since mid-January have been largely peaceful so far, the unrest over the past three days is reminiscent of the Yellow Vests protests that erupted in late 2018 over high fuel prices. Those demonstrations forced Macron to make a partial U-turn on the carbon tax.
Macron’s overhaul raised the pension age by two years to 64, which the government says is necessary to ensure the system does not break down.