Protesters angry with President Emmanuel Macron and his plan to raise the pension age blocked access to an airport terminal, sat on train tracks and clashed with police in a day of demonstrations across France. In central Paris, where a demonstration had been mainly peaceful, police used tear gas after protesters threw projectiles and set bins ablaze. A McDonald's restaurant was ransacked.
Small groups of "Black Bloc" anarchists were seen among the protesters. Unions fear that protests could turn more violent if there continues to be no political response from the government. Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport outside Paris was hit by wildcat action by workers.
Police also fired tear gas at protesters in several other cities, including the western cities of Nantes and Bordeaux. In Rennes, they used water cannon. In the western town of Lorient, Ouest-France newspaper said projectiles caused a brief fire in the yard of a police station. "There is a lot of anger, an explosive situation," the leader of the hardline CGT union, Philippe Martinez, said at the start of a rally in Paris. Union leaders called for calm but were angry with what they called Macron's "provocative" comments.
Macron broke weeks of silence on the new policy to say he would stand firm and the law would come into force by the end of the year. He compared the protests to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol. Opinion polls have long shown that a majority of voters oppose delaying retirement age by two years to 64.
Voters were further angered by the government's decision last week to push the pension changes through parliament. Many slogans and banners took aim at the president, who avoided reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a European Union leaders summit.
Initial estimates from police forces across the country suggested the turnout could exceed mass demonstrations before the bill was pushed through. The CGT union said some 800,000 people had marched in the capital. "I came here because I oppose this reform and I really oppose the fact that democracy no longer means anything," Sophie Mendy, an administrative medical worker, told Reuters at the Paris rally. "We’re not being represented, and so we’re fed up."
ANGER Electricity output was cut on Thursday as unions raised pressure on the government to withdraw the law. Flight services will continue to be reduced at the weekend, the civil aviation authority said.
Protests also targeted oil depots and blocked an LNG terminal in the northern city of Dunkirk. Rolling strikes at oil depots and refineries have led to major petrol shortages in the southeast and west of the country. Protests against the new law, which also accelerates a planned increase in the number of years one must work to draw a full pension, have drawn huge crowds in rallies organised by unions since January.
Most have been peaceful but anger has mounted since the government bypassed a vote in the lower house of parliament, where it does not have an absolute majority and was not sure to get enough support. The past seven nights have seen demonstrations in Paris and other cities with rubbish bins set ablaze and clashes with police.
The latest wave of protests represents the most serious challenge to the president's authority since the "Yellow Vest" revolt four years ago. "The street has a legitimacy in France. If Mr Macron can't remember this historic reality, I don't know what he is doing here," 42-year-old entertainment show worker Willy Mancel said at the Nantes rally.
Losing pay days when on strike takes a toll at a time of high inflation, and the government will be hoping that protests and strikes eventually lose steam. Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said the government was not in denial about the problems but wanted to move on.
Protesters, police clash across France in day of strife over Macron's pension changes
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