Road traffic at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport was disrupted and police fired clouds of tear gas in other French cities as protesters held a new round of strikes and demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms.
Talks between trade union leaders and prime minister Elisabeth Borne broke up without a breakthrough, setting the stage for more violent clashes on the streets over the president’s plans to raise the national retirement age from 62 to 64.
However, the number of strikers has fallen, particularly in the transport sector, since the beginning of the movement in January. The Paris Metro was operating a near-normal service, in stark contrast to previous days of action, and fewer teachers were on strike.
Dozens of trade unionists briefly invaded the Paris office of US investment firm BlackRock, chanting slogans and setting off firecrackers. The firm was targeted because of its private pension fund activity, a protester said.
Rat-catchers hurled rodent cadavers at City Hall on Wednesday; BFM-TV showed rodent corpses being tossed by workers in white protective suits.
Natacha Pommet, a leader of the public services branch of the CGT trade union, said the rat catchers wanted “to show the hard reality of their mission” and that opposition to Macron’s pension reforms is morphing into a wider movement of worker grievances over salaries and other complaints.
In Lyon, police fired tear gas — for many a new normal in France — to disperse a crowd outside a Nespresso coffee store that was being looted.
France’s interior ministry deployed some 11,500 police officers nationwide, including 4,200 in Paris, to try to avert more of the clashes and moments of vandalism that have marred previous protests.
It's “a deep anger, a cold anger,” said Sophie Binet, the newly elected general secretary of the CGT union. She described Macron's government as “completely disconnected from the country and completely bunkerized in its ministries.”
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
