Hundreds of thousands of people have continued to demonstrate across France against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the pension age to 64, with clashes breaking out between demonstrators and police on the edges of protests in cities including Lyon, Nantes and Paris.
In the capital, protesters briefly set fire to the awning of the Left Bank brasserie La Rotonde, well known for hosting Macron’s controversial evening of celebrations when he led the first-round vote in the 2017 presidential election. Police said several hundred of what they described as “radical elements” set bins alight and threw projectiles at officers near the restaurant.
In Lyon, police fired teargas after some shops were looted and bank windows were smashed. In Rennes, police fired teargas and protesters threw projectiles at officers.
France’s two-and-a-half-month protest movement against Macron’s plans to raise the minimum eligible retirement age from 62 to 64 has become the most serious political crisis of his second term as president.
Every week, trade unions have led one day of national strikes and peaceful street demonstrations, although clashes between police and protesters on the edges of demonstrations have begun occurring since mid-March. But while turnout has slightly decreased in recent weeks, unions have insisted French people would keep mobilising, demanding the change be scrapped.
“We’re still asking for the reform to be revoked,” Laurent Berger, the head of the centrist CFDT union, told RTL radio as the protests began. “We’re in the middle of a social crisis, a democratic crisis,” he said.
The government has refused to scrap the pension changes. All sides are awaiting a decision on 14 April by France’s constitutional council, which is evaluating the validity of the government’s plans.
Macron’s pension proposals include raising the minimum eligible retirement age from 62 to 64, and accelerating an increase in the number of years required to qualify for a full pension. The changes were pushed through using an executive order in mid-March, with the government deliberately bypassing parliament because it was afraid it would lose the vote. This move angered unions and brought more protesters on to the street, as well as university barricades and more high-school student participation.
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The constitutional council, which has the power to strike out some or even all of the legislation, will assess the pension changes based on a strict interpretation of the law. Constitutional experts say the council is unlikely to strike the legislation down fully.
The government is playing for time, hoping protests and strikes will fizzle out. Unions want to show that the protest movement still has momentum, whatever the council’s decision.
Schools, trains, planes and refineries were affected by strikes on Thursday but there was less transport disruption than in recent weeks.
The long-running protests against Macron’s pension changes has caused the president’s popularity to fall. The far-right Marine Le Pen, who currently leads the largest opposition party in parliament, has kept a low profile, hoping to increase her support among low-income workers, many of whom began their careers earlier and will be more greatly affected by the pension changes.
A poll on Wednesday found that Le Pen would beat Macron today if the presidential election of last spring were repeated. The survey, from the Elabe group for BFMTV, indicated Le Pen would score 55% and Macron 45% if they faced each other in a runoff vote now.
“Either trade unions win this, or it will be the far right,” Fabien Villedieu, a representative of Sud-Rail trade union, told France Info radio. “If you sicken people – and that is what’s happening – the danger is the arrival of the far right”.
