Big march in Paris.Image: AP / Aurelien Morissard
Politics
On Thursday, unions in France called for another strike. More than a million people took to the streets of France. The police used violence.
Lea Oetiker/ watson.ch
France is angry. Since the government used Article 49.3 of the Constitution to push through pension reform without a vote in Parliament, protests have intensified across the country. Now it’s not just the unions demonstrating. millions of People follow the call.
Not even King Charles III. wants to risk his head in this tumult.
An overview:
Over 450 arrests
On Thursday, the unions called for another strike. The mood in some cities was already tense during the day. Just for the demonstration in Paris the CGT reported 800,000 people, the largest number of participants in the French capital since the protests began. There were also clashes between the police and demonstrators. Police fired tear gas and used batons against the crowd. Some demonstrators set mountains of uncollected rubbish on fire in the streets, prompting firefighters to intervene.
The fire brigade had to move out because of mountains of rubbish that had been set on fire.Image: AP/Thomas Padilla
Hundreds of people were arrested. 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.
The mood was also heated in Bordeaux, Nantes and Rennes. According to the newspaper “Outes-France”, the yard of a police station in Lorient in Brittany was set on fire.
After two months, the President spoke to the people of France for the first time.Image: AP / Aurelien Morissard
“The police used batons and tear gas”
Pollster and sociologist Hugo Touzet is concerned about the violent intervention by the police: “Hundreds have been arrested in recent days, the police have used batons and tear gas. Videos are circulating of the police beating demonstrators, apparently without reason,” says Touzet to the NZZ.
President Emmanuel Macron’s speech was also sobering. For two months he had said nothing, leaving the protesters feeling that he actually had other things to do: he was on a state visit abroad and was receiving a number of politicians at the Élysée Palace.
It is unclear if and when the situation will calm down. According to Touzet, everything now boils down to a showdown: “Either Macron wins his bet. He expects things to calm down automatically after a while. Or the protesters can develop such strength that the president has to make concessions.”
The backgrounds
The protests are directed against the gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64, which has since been passed, and the actions of the center government under President Emmanuel Macron. According to the authorities, almost 1.09 million people demonstrated across the country on Thursday. The union CGT spoke of 3.5 million participants. The unions have called for new nationwide strikes and protests for Tuesday. The British King Charles III. should then visit in France be.
There have been demonstrations against the pension reform since the beginning of the year. The days of strikes and protests had been mostly peaceful for weeks. But since the government pushed the controversial reform through the National Assembly last week without a vote, there has been an increase in the number of cases Violence – especially in the case of spontaneous protests. For their part, demonstrators had accused the police of violence.
Pension reform is considered one of President Macron’s key projects. With it, an impending hole in the pension fund is to be averted. The unions consider the project unfair and brutal. The text has been approved, but is pending examination by the Constitutional Council. It is not yet clear when the instance will decide on the reform. Macron wants it to come into force by the end of the year. The dispute over the reform has significantly weakened the government.
Police and demonstrators fight street battles.Image: AP / Christophe Ena
Currently, the retirement age in France is 62 years. In fact, retirement begins later on average: those who have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension work longer. At the age of 67 there is then a pension without deduction, regardless of how long it has been paid in – the government intends to keep this, even if the number of deposit years required for a full pension is to increase more rapidly. She wants to increase the monthly minimum pension to around 1,200 euros.
Visit of King Charles postponed
The state visit of King Charles III. in France has been postponed because of the protests there against the pension reform. The Élysée Palace announced this on Friday. A new date for the visit has not yet been set.
Originally, Charles was due to come to France from Sunday to Wednesday on his first foreign visit as Britain’s king. From March 29th he will be in Deutschland expected.
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