new disturbances on the tenth day of protests against the pension reform

“The mobilization continues to be just as important” with “many young people” in the marches, assured from Clermont-Ferrand the leader of the CGT union – one of the largest unions in the country -, Philippe Martinez, for whom this is “proof of that the movement does not end”.

Since January 19, the unions have organized ten days of massive protests against this unpopular pension project, which increased in intensity in mid-March when Macron adopted it by decree, through article 49.3 of the Constitution, to avoid losing the vote in Parliament.

The latest mobilizations were marked by riots and clashes between radical protesters and security forces in large cities. Last Thursday, there were 457 detainees and 441 police officers and gendarmes injured, according to the authorities.

The intersindical, the grouping of unions in France, called for an eleventh day of strike for April 6.

This Tuesday, some 450,000 people demonstrated in Paris, according to data from the CGT union, which estimated the total national follow-up of the strike at more than two million. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 740,000 French people have taken to the streets throughout the country in this new day of rejection of the pension reform.

The first reported clash occurred early Tuesday afternoon in the city of Nantes, where a bank was set on fire and a local administrative court was attacked, according to a journalist from the AFP news agency. After a peaceful start to the protests, young demonstrators fired projectiles at the Police, who responded with tear gas.

There were also other clashes in Paris, where security forces fired tear gas at hundreds of people, dressed in black and with their faces covered, who looted a shop and set garbage on fire. The mobilized also started some barricades in the capital.

Tensions between unions, opposition and government

In this context of growing tension, the Government and the unions are looking for ways to calm things down, but firm in their positions: the union organizations want the withdrawal or suspension of the reform, and Macron says no.

The leader of the moderate CFDT union, Laurent Berger, assured at night that the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, had invited all the centrals to a meeting next week, on a date to be confirmed, which they will attend.

For his part, the first secretary of the opposition Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, criticized the decision, saying of Macron: “We have a totally blind and deaf president who does not understand his country.”

The leader of the leftist France Unsubmissive, Jean-Luc Mélénchon, also spoke, saying that “France does not lead with a stick.” Along the same lines, Fabien Roussel, head of the Communist Party, asked Macron to “listen to the deputies of his majority and accept the hand of the unions.”

The government spokesman, Olivier Véran, rejected on Tuesday the latest proposal by Laurent Berger, leader of the main union, CDFT, to seek “mediation” to find a way out, and stated that they can “talk directly.”

However, in an unusual gesture during this crisis, centrist deputies from the Democratic Movement, a member of Macron’s pro-government alliance, supported Berger’s proposal to “try to find dialogue” with some perspective.

The liberal president is under pressure. A majority of French consider him responsible for the current situation for not wanting to listen to the discomfort about a reform that the Government considers crucial to avoid a deficit in the pension fund.

Two out of three French people, according to polls, are also opposed to this reform that gradually delays the retirement age from 62 to 64 years by 2030 and advances to 2027 the requirement to contribute 43 years (and not 42) to receive a full pension .

The Eiffel Tower, on strike

Pending the opinion of the Constitutional Council on its validity, foreseeably in April, the Executive seeks to turn the page quickly with other priorities such as health, education and guaranteeing a stable majority in Parliament.

Meanwhile, the unions do not throw in the towel and the young are more and more numerous in the protests. The authorities hope that their presence “double or triple” this Tuesday compared to previous days.

“We want to show our discontent and say that, even if we are teenagers…, we have the right to say that we are against it,” Selma said Monday, as she blocked off her secondary school in Montreuil, east of Paris.

The protests have also taken multiple forms for weeks: thousands of tons of garbage accumulated in the streets of Paris, blockades of warehouses and refineries that left 15% of gas stations without fuel, among others.

However, it was confirmed this Tuesday that the garbage strike will end on Wednesday in the French capital.

This Tuesday, the trains were idling, and in Paris, public transport registered “disturbances”, according to its operator. For its part, the Eiffel Tower remained closed to the public.

“Due to the national strike, the Eiffel Tower is closed. We apologize for the inconvenience. Access to the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower remains open and free. Visitors with e-tickets for today should check their emails,” according to the site official of the emblematic monument.

In parallel, the authorities deployed an “unprecedented security device” of 13,000 agents, the largest organized to date.

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The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, warned of the presence in Paris of “more than 10,000 radicals, some from abroad”, when the Government tries to criminalize the protests, which continue to have great popular support.

However, the police management of the protests against the reforms, as well as the demonstration against an agricultural dam that left two people in a coma on Saturday, is in the crosshairs of human rights organizations.

In both cases, “there is a disproportionate use of force that we had already denounced during the social protest in 2018 and 2019 by the yellow vests,” Jean-Claude Samouiller, from the NGO Amnesty International, told AFP.

with AFP