C'EST LA GUERRE
French rioters’ retire-age rage
Ongoing French pension protests turned into ugly, fiery street battles that went into the early hours of Friday, injuring around 150 cops and forcing the UK’s King Charles III to scrap his first overseas trip as monarch.
Wild scenes saw black-clad anarchists in street battles with cops in cities across the nation on the ninth day of protests against government plans to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
More than 1 million people protested across the country, with at least 119,000 in Paris alone, according to the French Interior Ministry.
Unions put the figure even higher, claiming 3.5 million people marched, with many injured in clashes with cops, including a woman who lost a thumb in the Normandy town of Rouen.
Groups of so-called Black Bloc anarchists smashed shop windows and ransacked restaurants throughout the day, with videos showing huge fires raging in numerous French cities.
The main entrance to the town hall in Bordeaux was among the landmarks set ablaze, days before the planned visit there of the UK’s new king.
In Paris, riot police drove back the mobs with tear gas and stun grenades, with clashes continuing into the early hours Friday.
Police also fired tear gas at protesters in several other cities, including Nantes, Lorient and Lille, with a water cannon used against others in Rennes.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said at least 149 police officers were injured and 172 people arrested across the country.
“There are thugs, often from the far left, who want to bring down the state and kill police officers,” Darmanin said after visiting Paris police headquarters late Thursday.
Labor unions fear protests could turn more violent if the government does not heed mounting anger over pension curbs.
Opinion polls have long shown a majority of voters oppose the pension legislation.
Anger mounted last week when the government rammed the changes through the lower house of Parliament without a vote.
“The responsibility of this explosive situation lies not with the unions but with the government,” said Marylise Léon, deputy secretary general of the CFDT union.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was willing to meet union leaders — but vowed to press on with the “democratic process” that approved the retirement policy.
“We will yield nothing to violence, I condemn violence with the utmost strength,” said Macron, who earlier compared the uprising to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.
However, he confirmed that he’d been forced to cancel Sunday’s visit from King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla.
“I think we would not be serious and lack common sense to propose to His Majesty the King and the Queen Consort to come do a state visit in the middle of the demonstrations,” Macron said.
After a scheduled arrival in France Sunday, the king and queen had been due in riot-torn Bordeaux Tuesday, the same day unions plan new strikes and protests.
“There were calls on social networks to disrupt the king’s visit, to take action, so we didn’t want to take any risks,” a French source close to the matter said.
“He’s right not to come right now,” said architecture student Mathias Sainte Agathe.
“There are protests and strikes everywhere.”