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01:01

Paris protesters and police clash after Macron forces

through pension age rise – video

France
French anger spreads after
Macron forces pension age
rise
Strikes escalate and MPs call for protection
as interior minister warns protesters
against wreaking havoc

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

@achrisafis
Fri 17 Mar 2023 11.20 GMT

Refinery strikes have escalated in France as

the interior minister spoke of protesters
wreaking havoc across the country and
some MPs called for police protection, amid
anger at the government pushing through a
rise in the pension age without a
parliamentary vote.

More than 300 people were arrested across

France overnight during spontaneous
protests against Emmanuel Macron’s
decision to bypass parliament and force
through his unpopular pensions changes,
including raising the eligible age from 62 to
64.

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Macron instructed the prime minister,

Élisabeth Borne, to invoke article 49.3 of the
constitution, which allows the government
to adopt a bill without a parliamentary vote,
because he said there was too much
economic risk to the country if MPs voted
against the bill.

As opposition politicians accused the

government of a brutal and undemocratic
approach, demonstrators gathered in Paris
and other cities. About 200 protesters
briefly blocked traffic on the Paris ring road
early on Friday morning.

CGT unionists marching with flares and banners on

the Paris ring road. Photograph: Bertrand
Guay/AFP/Getty Images

In the energy sector, strikers voted to halt

production at one of the country’s largest
refineries by this weekend or Monday at the
latest, a representative of the CGT union
said. Workers had already been on a rolling
strike at the northern site TotalEnergies de
Normandie, but halting production would
escalate the industrial action and spark
fears of fuel shortages. Strikers continued to
deliver less fuel than normal from several
other sites.

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A bin collectors’ strike in Paris also

continued, as thousands of tonnes of waste
piled up in streets across half of the city. A
further day of coordinated strike action by
transport workers and teachers will take
place next Thursday. Some teachers’ unions
suggested supervisors should also strike
early next week when high school students
begin baccalauréat exams.

A cyclist riding past piles of rubbish in Paris’s 2nd

district. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin,

warned against what he called the chaos of
random, spontaneous street
demonstrations. Amid protests in cities
from Rennes to Marseille, 310 people were
arrested overnight, including 258 in Paris,
he told RTL radio.

“The opposition is legitimate, the protests

are legitimate, but wreaking havoc is not,”
Darmanin said. He complained of “very
difficult demonstrations” and denounced
the fact that effigies of Macron, Borne and
other ministers were burned at a protest in
Dijon. He said public buildings had been
targeted.

Late on Thursday night in Paris, some

people started fires on side streets and
caused damage to shop fronts after police
used teargas and water cannon to clear
hundreds of protesters who had gathered as
a fire was lit in the centre of Place de la
Concorde. By 11.30pm, 217 people had been
arrested on suspicion of seeking to cause
damage, Paris police said.

Protesters standing around burning barriers during a

demonstration on Place de la Concorde on Thursday.
Photograph: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty Images

The head of Macron’s centrist Renaissance

party in parliament, Aurore Bergé, wrote to
Darmanin asking him to ensure the
protection of MPs who feared violence
against them. She said she would not accept
MPs living in “fear of reprisals”. The interior
minister replied to say police would be
vigilant against any violence directed
towards lawmakers.

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Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age

from 62 to 64 was passed by the surprise,
last-minute use of a special constitutional
power after two months of coordinated
nationwide strikes and some of the biggest
protests in decades. The government took
the decision after it feared it could not
secure a majority of MPs to vote in favour.

Unions immediately called for another day

of mass strikes and protests for next
Thursday, calling the government’s move “a
complete denial of democracy”.

Opposition parties will call a vote of no-

confidence in the government on Monday.
For this to pass, it would require large
numbers of MPs from the rightwing party
Les Républicains to back it. The party has
said it will not do so, and the government
has so far survived all attempted no-
confidence votes in recent months.

Macron was severely undermined in the

national assembly after his centrist
grouping failed to win an absolute majority
in parliamentary elections last June amid
major gains for the far right and radical left.

Without a majority, Macron needed to rely

on lawmakers from Les Républicains to
back his pensions changes. But despite
weeks of negotiations with Borne, the
numbers did not add up, and the president
decided not to risk a vote.

Topics
France
Paris / Emmanuel Macron / Protest / Europe / news

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