Newsman: More than 1 million people demonstrated across France on Thursday against pension reforms. About 24% of teachers walked off the job in primary and middle schools on Thursday, and 15% in high schools, according to the Education Ministry’s official statement.
Unions called for new nationwide strikes and protests next week. The call for new nationwide strike led violence erupted in some places. The heavy wooden door of the elegant Bordeaux City Hall was set afire and quickly destroyed Thursday evening by a member of an unauthorized demonstration, the Sud Ouest newspaper said.
Violence, a recurring issue at protests, has intensified in recent days. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that 12,000 security forces were in the French streets Thursday, with 5,000 in Paris,
In Paris, street battles between police and black-clad, masked groups who attacked at least two fast food restaurants, a supermarket and a bank reflected intensifying violence and drew attention away from the tens of thousands of peaceful marchers.
At Paris’ Gare de Lyon train station, several hundred strikers walked on railway tracks to prevent trains from moving, brandishing flares and chanting “and we will go, and we will go until withdrawal” and “Macron, go away.”
In the northern suburbs of Paris, several dozen union members blocked a bus depot in Pantin, preventing about 200 vehicles from getting out during rush hour.
Police used tear gas to disperse rioters as pelted and charged multiple times by Molotov cocktails, objects and fireworks. A haze of tear gas fumes covered part of the Place de l’Opera, where demonstrators converged at the march’s end. Interior Minister Darmanin said radicals numbered some 1,500.
Building on strong turnout, unions swiftly called for new protests and strikes on Tuesday coinciding with King Charles III’s planned visit to France.the British king is scheduled to visit Bordeaux on the second day of his trip to France.
Violence marred other marches, notably in the western cities of Nantes, Rennes and Lorient — where an administrative building was attacked and the courtyard of the police station was set afire and its windows broken — and in Lyon, in the southeast.
The Interior Ministry said the march in Paris — blemished by violence, as were numerous marches elsewhere —drew 119,000 people, which was a record for the capital during the pension protests. Nationwide, more than a million people joined protest marches held in cities and towns around the country Thursday, the ministry said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, visiting police headquarters Thursday night as fires still burned in some Paris neighborhoods, gave assurance that security “poses no problem” and the British monarch will be “welcomed and welcomed well.”
He said there was “enormous degrading” of public buildings and commerce Thursday, “far more important than in precedent demonstrations.”
“There are troublemakers, often extreme left, who want to take down the state and kill police and ultimately take over the institutions,” the minister said.
The demonstrations were held a day after Macron further angered his critics by standing strong on the retirement bill that his government forced through parliament without a vote.
“While the (president) tries to turn the page, this social and union movement … confirms the determination of the world of workers and youth to obtain the withdrawal of the reform,” the eight unions organizing protests said in a statement. It called for localized action this weekend and new nationwide strikes and protests Tuesday.
Strikes upended travel as protesters blockaded train stations, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, refineries and ports.
Polls say most French oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s bill to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, which he says is necessary to keep the system afloat.
Thursday’s nationwide protests were the ninth union-organized demonstrations since January, when opponents still hoped that parliament would reject Macron’s measure to raise the retirement age. But the government forced it through using a special constitutional measure.
