In France, protests against the pension reform are increasing. Mass marches take place across the country, in which thousands of people participate. The police try to stop the angry mob, but it all ends in skirmishes and clashes with the security forces. The demonstrators use pyrotechnics, and in Lorient they even set fire to a police station.
Today in France, police violence against protesters and the opposition to them have reached a level of critical danger. Dozens of injured on both sides. The riots reached a new level after an interview with Emmanuel Macron. On the eve of the French leader said that the reform will come into force despite the protests.
“This reform is necessary. I would like to tell the French that I don’t like it, I wouldn’t want to do that, but I took this responsibility, because it is in our common interest,” Macron said.
Due to the strikes, there are serious disruptions in the work of transport. Traffic is severely disrupted. Most metro stations are closed, electric trains are running at huge intervals, and buses are running on the outskirts of towns not affected by the protest. Trains and the air sector were also affected. 30% of domestic flights canceled. Catering establishments are partially closed, there are problems in the service sector.
In Paris, several hundred demonstrators burst into the Gare de Lyon, disrupting train schedules. The action was attended by railway workers, teachers, medical workers. In Marseille at the station, demonstrators suggested blocking the tracks. In one of Le Havre’s biggest ports, an angry mob threw cars and buses into the fire using a loader.
However, the government continues to ignore the riot. The French fear that the innovations will hit low-income families and the vanishing middle class, whose members are getting poorer every year, the hardest hit.
“We have to stop taking money from those who earn little. I’m 68 and I know what it’s like. We have already fought for the payment of vacation pay at one point. I am there for the next generations who will succeed us. I think this is an unfair decision by the government,” the protester said.
The government, meanwhile, continues to push through the reform, under the slogan “the longer people work, the more budget money will be saved”, ignoring the financial, economic and energy crises.
“The people of France took to the streets to complain about the pension reform, which raises the retirement age. It must be understood that, in general, the French are tired of the Macron regime, which for six years has made life hell, whether it concerns social, economic or financial reforms, health, or how Mr. Macron handled the COVID crisis. Today, the French people are in great anger and can no longer tolerate Macron’s tyrannical attitude towards the French,” says political scientist Emmanuel Leroy.
The parliamentarians believe that the president is increasingly losing the confidence of the population because of what they consider to be excessive support for Ukraine. The internal affairs of their own country have taken a back seat. French unions have accused Emmanuel Macron of usurping power and vow to continue their protests.
Recall that on the eve of the country’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that in France, law enforcement agencies arrested more than 850 people during mass protests against the pension reform after its adoption bypassing a vote in parliament. Most people were taken into custody.
Fire and pogroms: to what extent have the demonstrations of “retreat” reached the cities of France?
