PARIS — Protesters opposing President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to lift the retirement age to 64 marched Thursday in cities and cities round France, in a closing present of anger earlier than a choice on whether or not the measure meets constitutional requirements.
In Paris, as 1000’s marched alongside the designated protest route, some protesters holding lit flares veered off to the Constitutional Council, which is to resolve Friday whether or not to nix all or any elements of the laws.
They confronted off with a big contingent of police deployed exterior the constructing, the place hours earlier than the march obtained underway different protesters had dumped baggage of rubbish.
The trash piles have been cleaned up however signaled the beginning of a brand new strike by rubbish collectors, timed to start with the nationwide protest marches. A earlier strike final month left the streets of the French capital crammed for days with mounds of reeking refuse.
Also earlier than the principle march, greater than 100 railroad employees marched down a Paris avenue of luxurious boutiques, invading luxurious conglomerate LVMH places of work and going to the primary flooring earlier than exiting.
Fabien Villedieu of the Sud-Rail Union stated LVMH “could reduce all the holes” in France’s social safety system. ”So one of many options to finance the pension system is a greater redistribution of wealth, and the easiest way to do this is to tax the billionaires.”
PHOTOS: Protesters march towards Macron’s plan to lift pension age
Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, “is the richest man in the world so he could contribute,” Villedieu stated.
Early on in the principle Paris protest, safety forces intervened to cease vandals damaging a store, with 15 folks detained, police stated. Like in previous protests, a number of hundred “radical elements” had combined contained in the march, police stated.
Thousands additionally marched in Toulouse, Marseille and elsewhere. Tensions mounted at protests in Brittany, notably in Nantes and Rennes, the place a automobile was burned.
“The mobilization is far from over,” the chief of the leftist CGT union, Sophie Binet, stated at a trash incineration web site south of Paris the place a number of hundred protesters blocked rubbish vans. “As long as this reform isn’t withdrawn, the mobilization will continue in one form or another.”
CGT has been a spine of the protest and strike motion difficult Macron’s plan to extend France’s retirement age from 62 to 64. Eight unions have organized protests since January in a uncommon voice of unity. Student unions have joined in.
Macron had initially refused a requirement to satisfy with unions, however throughout a state go to on Wednesday to the Netherlands proposed “an exchange” to debate the follow-up to the Constitutional Council resolution. There was no formal response to his supply.
Unions hoped for a robust turnout Thursday to stress each the federal government and the members of the Constitutional Council tasked with learning the textual content of the pension reform plan. Critics challenged the federal government’s alternative to incorporate the pension plan in a funds invoice, which considerably accelerated the legislative course of. The authorities’s resolution to skirt a parliamentary vote through the use of particular constitutional powers remodeled opponents’ anger into fury.
Polls constantly present a majority of French persons are against the pension reform.
“The contention is strong, anchored in the people,” stated Laurent Berger, head of the reasonable CFDT union. If the measure is promulgated, “there will be repercussions,” he warned, noting the “silent anger” among the many union rank and file.
Protests and labor strikes usually hobble public transportation in Paris, however Metro trains have been principally working easily Thursday. The civil aviation authority requested airports in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes to scale back air visitors by 20%.
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