City of ... Garbage? Paris, amid strikes, is drowning in trash

Mountains of trash bags block off streets. Rats and pigeons gnaw at baguettes on the sidewalks. A persistent, noxious smell permeates the air.

This is Paris in 2023. The City of Light and

Love has transformed into the City of Garbage after trash collectors went on strike over a week ago to protest the French government’s plan to raise their retirement age. Now, some 7,000 tons of trash are piling up on Paris sidewalks, the city says, with no one to collect it and many residents anxious for solutions.

France’s capital “has become a giant, open-air trash can,” said Transport Minister Clement Beaune.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power.

Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which was expected to trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government.

Riot police vans zoomed by outside the National Assembly, their sirens wailing.

Angry protesters took to the streets in Paris and other cities for a second day on Friday, trying to pressure lawmakers to bring down Macron’s government and doom the unpopular retirement age increase. A day after

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoked a special constitutional power to skirt a vote in the chaotic lower chamber, lawmakers on the right and left filed no-confidence motions to be voted on

Monday.

Macron argues the move is necessary to preserve the country’s social security system.

Under the proposal, trash collectors, who benefit from a special status because their jobs are physically taxing, would see their retirement age increase from 57 to 59. Unions say this is unacceptable. They say trash collectors face more health problems than other workers because they carry heavy loads are exposed to toxic material and work irregular hours.

In a bid to force the government to back off, municipal trash collectors and sanitation workers went on strike last week and recently voted to extend the strike until at least Monday. The crisis has sparked political infighting between government ministers and Paris

NATHAN LAINE Bloomberg A demonstrator in Paris brandishes a placard reading ‘Parliament Slaying The People’ at a protest during a national strike against pension reform on Wednesday.

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