We will yield nothing to violence: Macron on protests to French pension reforms
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A protester kicking a tear gas bomb during clashes with anti-riot police in Paris, on March 23, 2023.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the violence that erupted in Thursday’s demonstrations against raising the French retirement age and said he would not give in to it.
“We will yield nothing to violence. I condemn violence with the utmost strength,” Mr Macron told a news conference after a European Union summit in Brussels on Friday.
He was under pressure to find a way out of a crisis that has seen some of France’s worst street violence in years over a pension Bill he has pushed through Parliament without a vote.
In Paris and many cities across the country, clean-up crews sifted through broken glass, charred rubbish bins and shattered bus stops after violent clashes overnight between black-clad anarchists and police.
Some 441 police officers were injured and 475 people arrested on the ninth day of nationwide protests. Train and air services were disrupted while teachers were among many professionals walking off the job. Dozens of protesters were also injured, including a woman who lost a thumb in the Normandy city of Rouen.
Britain’s King Charles III, who was due to make his first state visit to France on Sunday, will postpone his trip, following a phone call between the King and Mr Macron.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on CNews channel on Friday morning that there were 903 fires lit in the Parisian streets in what had been the most violent day of protests since they began in January.
“There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris,” Mr Darmanin added, saying the toll was “difficult” while praising the police for protecting the people who marched around France.
The French Interior Ministry said 1.089 million people protested across the country, including 119,000 in the capital, which was a record since protests started.
The General Confederation of Labour said 3.5 million people marched in the country, equalling a previous high on March 7.
The rallies that gathered large crowds throughout the day were otherwise largely peaceful. But police had warned that anarchist groups were expected to infiltrate the Paris march, and young men wearing hoods and face masks were seen smashing windows and setting fire to uncollected rubbish in the latter stages of the demonstration.
It has been the most serious challenge to Mr Macron’s authority since the “Yellow Vest” revolt of disgruntled lower-income people four years ago.
Opinion polls show a wide majority of voters are opposed to delaying the retirement age by two years to 64. They were further angered by the government deciding to skip the vote in Parliament.
On a shattered Starbucks window, someone had tagged “Democracy” in big red letters. Other tags seen on burnt-down newspaper kiosks and damaged shop windows read “Anti-Macron” and “Macron, resign”.
Thousands of people participating in a protest against government pension reforms in Paris, on March 23, 2023.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
“Everybody is worried this morning because there has been unacceptable violence,” French Democratic Confederation of Labour head Laurent Berger told RTL radio, urging Mr Macron to step in.
“We need to calm things down before there is a tragedy,” he said. “To find a way out, we need the government and the President to make a gesture.”
The solution, the influential Mr Berger said, would be to put the reforms on pause for six months and look for compromises.
In a TV interview on Wednesday, Mr Macron said he would not withdraw the law and that it would proceed as planned and enter into force by the year end.
Separately, Mr Darmanin said: “I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence. If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”
A firefighter trying to extinguish a blaze amid protests in Paris over the government’s pension reforms, on March 23, 2023.
PHOTO: AFP
Elsewhere on Thursday, the entrance to Bordeaux city hall was set on fire during clashes in the south-western wine-exporting hub.
“I have difficulty in understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism,” Bordeaux Mayor Pierre Hurmic told RTL radio on Friday. “Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Fuel shipments resumed on early Friday from TotalEnergies’ Gonfreville refinery in Normandy after police intervened to disperse refinery workers holding a blockage, Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher said.
Unions have called for regional action over the weekend and new nationwide strikes and protests on Tuesday. REUTERS, AFP
