This Thursday’s demonstration against pension reform in Paris was marred by violent clashes between violent elements and the forces of order, the destruction of street furniture and shop windows.
Men dressed in black and hooded a few hundred meters ahead of the union procession opened fire on law enforcement officers who responded with tear gas during the journey between the Place de la Bastille and the Opéra, where the march ended.
At some points, they set fires, taking advantage of the garbage accumulated on the streets due to a collector strike that lasted more than two weeks, forcing firefighters to intervene.
By noon, police sources said 14 arrests had been made.
Parallel to these riots, a union parade took place peacefully with 800,000 participants, according to the first figures from the CGT, which, if confirmed, would be the largest concentration since protests against pension reform began on January 19.
As in Paris, the demonstrations also escalated into incidents in other cities of the country such as Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux or Lorient.
Key union leaders have distanced themselves from and condemned the acts of violence, while accusing President Emmanuel Macron of relying on them to discredit the strength of his demonstrations.
France is in its ninth day of protests against a text of a law that would delay the minimum retirement age by two years, to 64, which was finally approved this Monday after two votes of no confidence in the government failed, one of them by just nine votes. .
Macron assured this Wednesday that he expects the reform to take effect before the end of the year, once it receives the approval of the Constitutional Council, while unions say they will continue protests and strikes to force the executive branch and what to remove. EFE
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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