Paris. Nearly two weeks after President Emmanuel Macron decreed his unpopular pension reform, fresh clashes erupted Tuesday in France, whose government invited unions to a meeting next week after rejecting an initial request for “mediation.”
The participation drew back 740,000 people, according to the authorities, and “more than two million,” according to the CGT union, on the tenth day of protests since January. The unions called again to demonstrate on Thursday, April 6.
The union centrals are the spearhead of the mobilization against the delay of the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030, but Macron’s decision to apply it by decree radicalized the protests. The riots continued in dozens of cities in France, from Lille to Toulouse, passing through Rennes or Lyon, but less intense.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported that 201 people were arrested and 175 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
Although the government, which has mobilized 13,000 police officers, seeks to criminalize the protests and undermine support for them, police action is under fire after criticism from human rights NGOs and even the Council of Europe.
Macron’s government has rejected a new demand by unions to reconsider a pension bill, angering union leaders who said the Elysee must find a way out of the crisis.
Motorways in several French cities were blocked yesterday morning, and strikes in the transport, aviation and energy sectors continued to disrupt travel.
The UNEF student union said entrances to some 20 universities, including Sciences Po and parts of the Sorbonne in Paris, as well as institutions in Lyon, Nice and Toulouse, were also blocked.
