In France, street protests against the pension reform continued on Saturday, in Paris riot police tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas; several of the demonstrators set trash cans on fire, reports MTI.
The authorities banned gatherings on the Place de la Concorde in Paris and on the nearby Champs-Élysées avenue, where there had already been clashes between protesters and the police on the previous two nights. On Saturday, the protests continued in the southeastern part of the capital because of this.
Several subway stops around the city center were closed for security reasons.
French President Emmanuel Macron decided on Thursday to announce the controversial pension reform without a parliamentary vote, after the National Assembly did not have the necessary majority to pass the bill. The most important point of the reform is the gradual raising of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. In response to the promulgation of the legislation, mass demonstrations began across the country.
Protest actions took place on Saturday in Marseille, Toulon, Brest, Caen, Saint-Étienne, Compiegne, Bordeaux and Montpellier, among others. In Nantes, several thousand people showed up at the call of the CGT trade union, erected barricades and lit fires in the streets.