- According to the trade unions in France, three and a half million people demonstrated against the controversial pension reform on Thursday.
- The first day of nationwide strikes covered over 300 cities. According to the police, around a million people across the country took to the streets.
Anger also erupted violently in some cities after the Macron government pushed through raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without parliamentary approval a few days ago. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of 457 arrests on CNews on Friday. About 440 police officers and gendarmes were injured in the riots. In Paris alone there were around 900 fires on the fringes of the protests.
Legend:
Burning barricades at the mass protest against pension reforms on March 23, 2023 in Paris.
Keystone/AP/Christophe Ena
The potential for violence in the protests is apparently increasing. For the past week, protests have been taking place in Paris and other cities almost every evening. This is mainly called for via social networks, and clashes with the police usually follow, as SRF France correspondent Daniel Voll reports.
Signs of increasing violence
Yesterday there were such clashes for the first time on a national mobilization day on the fringes of the demonstrations organized by the unions. Reports of street fighting with injuries on both sides are coming from different cities. Overall, however, it appears to have remained largely peaceful, said Voll.
Legend:
After the end of the rally, rubbish bins also burned in the streets of Strasbourg.
Keystone/AP/Jean-Francois Badias
The sometimes increasing violence does not suit the trade unions. You want to avoid an escalation like the «Gilet Jaunes» a few years ago from the start. Because it’s also about public opinion, which is clearly on the side of the unions at the moment and which they don’t want to lose, as Voll says. Not only the trade unions feared such an escalation, but also the government.
Legend:
In the center of Lyon, too, many people followed the call for national protests against the pension reform that had been decreed.
Keystone/AP/Laurent Cipriani
Macron stays firm
President Emmanuel Macron is unyielding despite the tense situation. He wants to push through the pension reform that he pushed through by decree in Parliament last week. It had become apparent that the protests would not abate but increase. Macron gambled big a week ago. Giving in now would be a serious political defeat for him. “He probably still hopes that the resistance will subside and that he can sit out the problem more,” estimates Voll.