Paris (CNN) Protests turned violent in some areas as more than a million people took to the streets across France on Thursday and demonstrators expressed their anger. Proposed pension reform.
After clashes broke out between a group of protesters and the police, workers went on strike nationwide Reignited in Paris and regional capitals all Thursday.
French police said about 1,000 people had acted “violently”, setting fires, firing smoke grenades and damaging property.The city of southwestern Bordeaux, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. In 2018, protesters set fire to the entrance to City Hall amid ongoing clashes with police.
Police fired tear gas into crowds in north-west Lorient, and video in Rennes shows authorities using water cannons to disperse protesters.
At least 80 people were arrested and 123 police officers were injured in nationwide protests in France on Thursday, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said.
Thursday was the ninth day of strikes in the country and the first of concerted action since French President Emmanuel Macron’s government pushed through parliament a bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. no votes last week.
French trade unions have set new strikes and protests for next Tuesday, when Britain’s King Charles is due to visit Bordeaux during his first foreign visit as monarch.
The gate of the Bordeaux City Hall after it was set on fire during the National Day of Action demonstrations in Bordeaux, southwestern France, on March 23.
The mostly peaceful day of the strike, which saw 119,000 march in Paris, disrupted transport networks, oil refineries and schools, according to the interior ministry.
It also affected air traffic, with 30% of flights affected at Paris Orly Airport.
Unionized workers have blocked a major refinery in Normandy and another refinery in Fos-sur-Mer in the south, according to a government spokesperson. And earlier in the day, about 70 protesters blocked Terminal 1 at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, an airport spokesperson told CNN.
Ahead of the strike, French authorities mobilized 12,000 police officers across the country, including 5,000 in Paris.
French riot police arrest protesters during clashes during a demonstration against pension reform in Paris on March 23, 2023.
Macron digs in as more strikes are planned
The government’s plan to raise the retirement age for most workers by two years was opposed by a large number of people.
Despite the protests, Macron’s government did not back down. Last week, it pushed a bill through the French National Assembly using a constitutional clause that allows the government to avoid voting.
A generous pension and early retirement system has been a national pride since it was enacted after World War II. Under the new law, the retirement age for most workers is 64, making him one of the lowest in the industrialized world.
When the proposal was unveiled in January, the government said reforms were needed to prevent a projected €13.5 billion ($14.7 billion) hole in the pension system in 2030.
Thursday’s demonstrations came after President Emmanuel Macron defended the reforms in a French television interview on Wednesday, confirming they would be implemented by the end of the year.
“It’s in the greater good of the country. Between the polls and the national interest, I chose the national interest,” Macron said.
But government critics and Macron’s critics were outraged.
“[Macron] It is adding fuel to the fire,” Philippe Martinez, secretary general of France’s largest trade union, the CGT, told French broadcaster LCI on Thursday.
France’s eight major trade unions announced further nationwide protests on March 28, calling for local subversive action over the weekend.
“The government, not the unions, is responsible for this explosive situation,” they said in a televised statement.
