France was disrupted by another day of protests on Thursday as unions vowed to defeat President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform, though the number of demonstrators dwindled for the second strike day in a row.
The protests descended into clashes with police on the fringes of a large, union-led march in Paris. Groups clad in black lobbed paint and other projectiles — including cobblestones — at police, who responded with tear gas. Some protesters smashed the outside of a bank branch.
Firefighters had to extinguish a fire on the awning of the well-known brasserie La Rotonde, where Macron held his election night party in 2017, and which had become a target as demonstrators walked past. Earlier in the day, dozens of rail workers carrying flares and banners temporarily occupied the lobby of an office block where the investment firm BlackRock has premises.
At least 111 people were arrested nationwide, while more than 100 police were injured, some seriously, according to the interior ministry.
Police estimated that 570,000 took part in marches on Thursday, down from 740,000 a week earlier, when crowds were already smaller than a high point on March 23 when more than 1mn people turned out. In Paris, unions say that 400,000 people took to the streets on Thursday, down from 450,000 the week before, while police put the figure at 57,000.
Unions have been seeking to keep up pressure with this 11th day of strikes since the government unveiled its plan in January to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Protests have continued since the government chose last month to bypass a parliamentary vote to push through the unpopular law, intensifying anger among the bill’s detractors.
“The president’s position is a huge problem,” said Claire Cazin, a CGT union member at airports operator Aéroports de Paris who had joined the Paris march. She said momentum would continue, with further action at airports being discussed after some terminals at Roissy were blocked on Thursday morning. “There will be a crescendo.”
A day before the Constitutional Court is expected to review the pensions law, unions have called a new day of strikes for April 13. This is their next big moment in the stand-off with the government, which is hoping demonstrations will have died down by then.
The court will rule on the constitutionality of both the content of the legislation and how the government pushed it through. The pension reform was added to a budget bill to limit the number of days it could be debated to 50, and to be able to pass it without a vote using the constitution’s Clause 49.3.
Leftwing parties have also asked the court to approve an application to put the pensions reform up for a national referendum. If granted this would be a setback for Macron.
Union leaders, who met with Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Wednesday for a brief and inconclusive exchange, have reiterated their call for Macron to hit pause on the reform or withdraw it.
“Macron has the solution in his hands,” Laurent Berger, leader of the moderate CFDT union told RTL radio on Thursday. He claimed that the means by which the pensions reform had been pushed through and the subsequent backlash had spiralled into a “democratic crisis”.
Borne called the meeting an important step, “even if our disagreements over age did not allow us to have an in-depth discussion”.
Macron, who is on a state visit to China, has stood firm. He has argued the law is necessary to ensure the pensions system remains viable as the population ages.
As well as raising the minimum age to 64, the reforms will require people to work for 43 years to receive a full pension, which unions argue is too harsh especially for those with physically demanding jobs.
Other signs emerged on Thursday of turnout falling among strikers. High-speed train services were less disrupted than in recent weeks, while the number of teachers on strike dipped below 8 per cent, compared with more than 20 per cent in March.
Garbage collectors ended strikes last week that had allowed tens of thousands of tonnes of uncollected rubbish accumulate on the streets of Paris. They are set to resume next week.
Politically, the pensions protests have started to benefit Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party, several polls in recent weeks have shown.
One on Wednesday, by pollster Elabe, showed Le Pen would win the most votes in the first round of a presidential election at 31 per cent, compared with her 23 per cent score last year. Macron would garner 23 per cent, down from 28 per cent in the past election.
Additional reporting by Leila Abboud
