Macron pension standoff sparks new clashes in France

While the number of protesters has dwindled, unions are keen to keep the pressure on for nearly three months ahead of a major court decision next week on the retirement overhaul.

The controversial reforms seek to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, while requiring people to work longer for full pay.

Macron, who is currently visiting China, faces the biggest challenge of his second term, refusing to defend despite declining personal popularity ratings.

Demonstrations were held across the country, with people waving placards or carrying union flags from Paris to the southern cities of Montpellier and Marseille.

“We haven’t given up yet and we don’t intend to,” said Davy Chrétien, a 50-year-old public servant marching in Marseille.

The interior ministry said 570,000 people had demonstrated on Thursday, down significantly from the 740,000 it counted last week.

Official figures are far below the organizers’ count, with the CGT union claiming 400,000 people came to the Paris protest, while the ministry counted 93,000.

restaurant set on fire

Amid the crowd, some hardline protesters threw paint on the shields of heavily armed policemen outside La Rotonde, a famous Paris brasserie supported by Macron.

An AFP journalist saw a group of people dressed in black setting off fireworks and throwing stones at the restaurant.

The fire was caused by a fire thrown on a cloth canopy and firefighters came to douse it.

Macron hosted a victory party at the restaurant during his successful 2017 election bid.

Elsewhere in Paris, protesters attacked a bank branch, smashing windows and taking away files and computer keyboards, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Some threw projectiles at the police, who responded with tear gas. Paris police headquarters said how many officers were injured.

Striking railway workers also briefly stormed the former headquarters of Crédit Lyonnais bank, which now houses companies such as the Blackrock investment firm.

An AFP photographer saw that in the western city of Nantes, protesters threw stones at police, who also fired tear gas.

Meanwhile in the eastern city of Nancy, protesters set fire to the front entrance of a local branch of France’s central bank.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter that 111 people were arrested nationwide and 154 police were injured, some of them seriously.

losing steam?

Unions expected a massive turnout on the 11th day of action since January, although there are signs the protest movement is losing momentum.

On Thursday, the Paris Metro system experienced minimal disruption, and only one in four high-speed trains across the country was cancelled.

The Ministry of Education stated that only eight percent of school teachers were on strike.

The protest movement turned violent on 16 March after Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked a controversial executive power to force the bill through parliament without a vote.

French unions have called for another day of protests on 13 April.

All sides in the standoff await an April 14 decision on the legality of the reform by France’s Constitutional Council, which has the power to strike down some or all of the law.

Council members known as “the wise men” have no sway over the opposition, but the unions want to keep up their pace.

“We are in the midst of a social crisis, a democratic crisis,” Laurent Berger, head of the centrist CFDT union, told RTL radio.

“It’s a problem … that needs to be resolved by the president.”

waning popularity

France’s eight main labor unions said a meeting with Borne on Wednesday, the first since January, was a “failure” after he refused to discuss going back to the minimum retirement age of 64.

The government has argued that longer working hours are necessary to prevent the pension system from running into losses.

In the rest of Europe, most people retire in their late sixties as life expectancy has increased.

Critics say the pension reform is unfair to people working harder who start working early, as well as to women who interrupt their careers to raise children.

If the Constitutional Council gives its green signal, Macron will be able to sign the changes into law.

But the impasse has dented his popularity, with a poll by the Elabay group suggesting on Wednesday that far-right leader Marine Le Pen would defeat him if last year’s presidential election was repeated.

A poll published on Thursday by polling firm Odoxa found that around 64 percent of people still support the anti-pension reform protest, little changed from previous weeks.