19.03.2023 00:08
(Akt. 19.03.2023 00:10)
Burning rubbish bins during protests in France
©APA/AFP
During protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, there were clashes between the police and demonstrators in France on Saturday for the third night in a row. Garbage cans and rubbish bins were set on fire in Paris and the police used tear gas. As the news channel “BFMTV” reported, citing police circles, 81 people had been arrested. Around 4,000 demonstrators attended the rally.
Protests also broke out in other cities across the country, including Nantes, Marseille and Bordeaux. People reject the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64, which President Emmanuel Macron pushed through on Thursday, bypassing a parliamentary vote. A broad alliance of the main French unions has announced further action to reverse the increase. In the past few weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets against the plans. On Friday, 61 people were temporarily arrested during the protests.
As a result of the protests, mountains of rubbish are also piling up in the capital. There was also a strike in refineries on Saturday. Around 37 percent of employees in TotalEnergies refineries and depots stopped work. The strikes also continued on the railways.
Macron justified raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by saying that otherwise the pension system would collapse. Out of fear of a defeat in parliament, his government pushed through the plan without a vote and invoked an article in the constitution that allows this. Raising the retirement age is one of the President’s most important projects.
Observers had said that bypassing the vote was evidence that Macron’s ability to organize majorities for reform projects had suffered. This should now also affect future projects, it said.
The protests of the past three days are reminiscent of the “yellow vest” rallies that broke out at the end of 2018 because of high fuel prices and forced Macron to make a partial about-face at the time.