Escalation of violence in France: ‘Either Macron wins his bet, or…’

France is angry. Since the government used Article 49.3 of the constitution to push through pension reforms without a parliamentary vote, protests have intensified across the country. Now not only the trade unions are demonstrating. Millions of people are following 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 a new strike. In some cities, the mood was already tense during the day. For the demonstration in Paris alone, CGT reported 800,000 people, the largest number of participants in the French capital since the protests began. There were also clashes between police and protesters. Police fired tear gas and batons against the crowd. Some demonstrators set fire to mountains of uncollected rubbish in the street, forcing the fire brigade to intervene.

Hundreds of people were arrested. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of 457 arrests on CNews on Friday. About 440 policemen and gendarmes were injured in the riots. In Paris alone, there were about 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 has been set on fire.

“Police used batons and tear gas”

Pollster and sociologist Hugo Touzet is concerned about the violent behavior of the police: “Hundreds have been arrested in recent days, the police have used batons and tear gas. Videos of police beating protesters for no reason,” Touzet told the NZZ.

President Emmanuel Macron’s speech was also sobering. He hadn’t said anything for two months, giving the demonstrators the feeling that he actually had other things to do: he was on a state visit abroad and received a number of politicians at the Élysée Palace.

It is unclear if and when the situation will calm down. According to Touzet, everything now comes down to a showdown: “Or Macron wins his bet. He expects calm to return after a while, otherwise the demonstrators can become so strong that the president has to make concessions.”

The backgrounds

The protests are against the gradual increase of the retirement age from 62 to 64, which has now been adopted, and the actions of the center government under President Emmanuel Macron. Nearly 1.09 million people demonstrated across the country on Thursday, authorities said. The trade 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. must then be visiting France.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been protests against the pension reform. The days of strikes and protests had been mostly peaceful for weeks. But since the government pushed the controversial reform through the National Assembly without a vote last week, violence has increased — especially during spontaneous protests. For their part, protesters had accused the police of violence.

Pension reform is considered one of President Macron’s most important projects. This should avert an imminent gap in the pension fund. The unions find the project unfair and ruthless. The text has been approved, but awaits consideration by the Constitutional Council. It is not yet clear when the body will decide on the reform. Macron wants it to come into force by the end of the year. The dispute over reform has significantly weakened the government.

The retirement age in France is currently 62 years. In fact, retirement starts later on average: those who have not paid in long enough to receive a full pension continue to work longer. At age 67 there will then be a pension with no deductions, regardless of how long it has been paid in – the government intends to keep this even if the number of years it takes to pay in for a full pension increases 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.

Charles was originally supposed to come to France from Sunday to Wednesday on his first foreign visit as British king. He is expected in Germany from March 29.

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