French unions have scheduled strikes and demonstrations for next Tuesday, the day Britain’s King Charles is due to visit Bordeaux during his first state visit as king. More than a million people took to the streets across France yesterday and demonstrated against President Macron, the protests against the pension law were characterized by severe violence
More than a million people took to the streets across France yesterday to demonstrate against President Macron, with the protests turning violent in some areas as protesters expressed their anger over proposed pension reforms.
Clashes between groups of protesters and police erupted after workers staged a national strike throughout Thursday, literally flaring up in Paris and regional capitals.
???????? France one step away from civil war. Macron’s police beat women and the elderly. Ignored by BBC & ITV news…Why? pic.twitter.com/iv8FDtoxmU
— Frantruth (@frantruth) March 15, 2023
French police said about 1,000 people “acted violently”, setting fires, launching smoke bombs and damaging property. In the southwestern city of Bordeaux, protesters set fire to the entrance to the city hall during ongoing clashes with the police.
Police fired tear gas at crowds in northwest Lorient, authorities used water cannons to disperse protesters. Hundreds of people were arrested and 400 police were injured Thursday during the nationwide protests, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said. “There are troublemakers, mostly extreme leftists, who want to overthrow the state and kill policemen and eventually take over the state’s institutions,” said the minister.
Paris, France ????????
Paris is burning.
The people have had enough of being treated like serfs by a feudalist government.pic.twitter.com/WhBcJchXn2
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) March 23, 2023
Thursday was the ninth day of strikes in the country and the first of a huge demonstration since French President Emmanuel Macron’s government voted in favor of a bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 through parliament last week.
French unions have scheduled strikes and demonstrations for next Tuesday, the day Britain’s King Charles is due to visit Bordeaux during his first state visit as king. Ahead of the strike and demonstration, French authorities mobilized 12,000 police across the country, including 5,000 in Paris. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who visited police headquarters in Paris on Thursday night as fires still burned in Paris neighborhoods, promised that security would “not be a problem” and the British monarch would be “welcomed”.