Proton and union protests against the retirement age increase for the King on a royal visit to France in the light of a Paris protest
The UK government made the decision to suspend the King’s visit to France after the President of France asked the British Government to delay the visit.
Building on the strong turnout, unions swiftly called for new protests and strikes on Tuesday when the British king is scheduled to visit Bordeaux on the second day of his trip to France. The heavy wooden door of the elegant Bordeaux City Hall was set afire and quickly destroyed Thursday evening by a members of an unauthorized demonstration, the Sud Ouest newspaper said.
The Interior Ministry stated that the march in Paris drew 119,000 people, a record for the capital. Polls say most French oppose President Emmanuel Macron’s bill to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, which he says is necessary to keep the system afloat.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, visiting police headquarters Thursday night as fires still burned in some Paris neighborhoods, gave assurance that security “poses no problem” and the British monarch will be “welcomed and welcomed well.”
“There are troublemakers, often extreme left, who want to take down the state and kill police and ultimately take over the institutions,” the minister said.
The demonstrations were held a day after Macron further angered his critics by standing strong on the retirement bill that his government forced through parliament without a vote.
“While the (president) tries to turn the page, this social and union movement … confirms the determination of the world of workers and youth to obtain the withdrawal of the reform,” the eight unions organizing protests said in a statement. It called for localized action this weekend and new nationwide strikes and protests Tuesday.
Violence in Paris and elsewhere: When police intervene to enforce the law, protesters and the CFDT trade union chief says the only way out is the withdrawal of the law
In Paris, street battles between police and black-clad, masked groups who attacked at least a few restaurants and stores reflected intensifying violence and drew attention away from the tens of thousands of peaceful marchers.
Police charged multiple times and used tear gas to disperse rioters who threw Molotov cocktails, objects and fireworks. A haze of tear gas fumes covered part of the Place de l’Opera, where demonstrators converged at the march’s end. Darmanin said some 1,500 radicals existed.
In western cities of Rennes and Lorient, an administrative building and courtyard of a police station were set on fire, and in Lyon, the windows of a police station were broken.
In an interview Wednesday, he was not going to budge from his position that a new law is required to keep retirement coffers funded. Opponents proposed taxes on the wealthy and companies in order to hurt the economy. He insisted the government’s bill to raise the retirement age must be implemented by the end of the year.
“We are trying to say before the law is enacted … that we have to find a way out and we continue to say that the way out is the withdrawal of the law,” the chief of the moderate CFDT trade union, Laurent Berger, told The Associated Press.
Paris mass demonstrations after the Parisian protests on Friday: The frustration of the public transport system, unions, and police – the legacy of the Paris protests
There were disruptions to high-speed and regional trains as well as the Paris metro and other public transportation systems. About 30% of flights at Paris Orly Airport were canceled.
The Education Ministry said that more than 20% of teachers walked off the job on Thursday in middle and high schools.
At Paris’ Gare de Lyon train station, several hundred strikers walked on railway tracks to prevent trains from moving, brandishing flares and chanting “and we will go, and we will go until withdrawal” and “Macron, go away.”
“This year perhaps maybe our holidays won’t be so great,” said Maxime Monin, 46, who stressed that employees like himself, who work in public transport, are not paid on strike days. I think it’s worth the sacrifice.
Several dozen union members in the northern suburbs of Paris block a bus depot, preventing about 200 vehicles from leaving during rush hour.
Although no major protests were planned for Friday, train traffic was slowed, rows of trucks blocked access to Marseille’s port for several hours and debris still littered the streets of Paris following the previous day’s mass demonstrations.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 441 police officers and gendarmes were injured as violence marred some marches. Garbage cans have become a symbol of the protest in France as overflowing trash bins were set on fire.
Controversies in the Paris City Hall and Gonfreville-L’Orcher refinery during Charles’s visit to France
The king’s first overseas trip as Britain’s monarch was planned to visit France and Germany. He still plans to go to Germany, but British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said another date would be found for the French leg.
Charles had been scheduled to visit the city of Bordeaux on the second day of his trip to France. The Bordeaux City Hall’s elegant wooden door was destroyed by fire on Thursday night as people took part in an unauthorized demonstration.
Fires in Paris, that were intentionally lit in narrow or inaccessible alleys on Thursday night, alarmed both city officials and residents. Firefighters and residents worked together to tame the flames that rose to the second story of an apartment building in the chic Palais Royal area.
Oil refining have been targets of protest. On Friday, emboldened protesters headed to the Fos-sur-mer oil depot near Marseille to stop trucks from entering and leaving. However, fuel supplies to Paris from the large Gonfreville-L’Orcher refinery in Normandy resumed Friday after police intervened, French Energy Transition Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said.