Refinery strikes continued in France on Saturday and more demonstrations took place across the country amid anger over a government pushing for an increase in the state’s retirement age without a parliamentary vote.
The growing unrest, combined with rubbish piling up on Paris streets after stranded workers joined the action, has left President Emmanuel Macron with the gravest challenge to his authority since protests by so-called ‘Gilets Jaunes’ (yellow vests ) in December 2018 .
Meanwhile, strikes continued on the railways.
Riot police clashed with protesters on Friday night in Paris as a demonstration took place on the capital’s Place de la Concorde near the Assemblée Nationale parliament building, resulting in 61 arrests.
“There is no place for violence. Parliamentary democracy must be respected,” the Minister of Digital Transition and Telecommunications, Jean-Noel Barrot, told Radio Sud.
Another rally was scheduled in Paris later on Saturday as BFM television showed footage of demonstrations already underway in cities including Compiègne in the north, Nantes in the west and Saint-Etienne in central France.
A broad alliance of key French unions has said it will continue to mobilize to try to force a turnaround on the changes. A national day of union action is scheduled for Thursday.
While eight days of nationwide protests since mid-January and many local union actions have so far been largely peaceful, the unrest over the past three days is reminiscent of the yellow vest protests that erupted in late 2018 over high fuel prices. forced Macron to partially reverse the carbon tax.
Source: Terra
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