Protesters opposing President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age to 64 marched again in cities and towns around France, in a final show of anger before a crucial decision on the measure.
Demonstrators targeted the Central Bank offices in Paris and briefly invaded the headquarters of luxury conglomerate LVMH — but their attention increasingly centred on the Constitutional Council, which is to decide on Friday whether to nix any or all parts of the legislation.
Activists dumped bags of garbage outside the council’s columned façade in the morning. Later, another crowd holding flares faced off with a large contingent of riot police that rushed to protect the building.
Paris police banned all gatherings outside the council from Thursday evening through to Saturday morning, in an attempt to reduce pressure on the council members as they make their decision.
Police said some 380,000 people took part in the protests across France on Thursday. The number was down from recent weeks, but unions still managed to mobilise sizable crowds. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, though dozens of injuries were reported among police and protesters.
Unions had been hoping for a strong turnout to pressure both the government and the members of the Constitutional Council tasked with studying the text of the pension reform plan. The government’s decision to skirt a parliamentary vote by using special constitutional powers transformed opponents’ anger into fury.
The rubbish piles signaled the start of a new strike by garbage collectors, timed to begin with the nationwide protest marches. A previous strike last month left the streets of the French capital filled for days with mounds of reeking refuse.
Polls consistently show a majority of French people are opposed to the pension reform, which Macron says is needed to keep the retirement system afloat as the population ages.
Fabien Villedieu of the Sud-Rail Union said LVMH “could reduce all the holes” in France’s social security system. “So one of the solutions to finance the pension system is a better redistribution of wealth, and the best way to do that is to tax the billionaires.”
Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, “is the richest man in the world so he could contribute,” Villedieu said.
Thousands also marched in Toulouse, Marseille and elsewhere.
“The mobilisation is far from over,” the leader of the leftist CGT union, Sophie Binet, said at a rubbish incineration site south of Paris where several hundred protesters blocked garbage trucks. “As long as this reform isn’t withdrawn, the mobilisation will continue in one form or another.”
CGT has been a backbone of the protest and strike movement challenging Macron’s plan to increase France’s retirement age from 62 to 64. Eight unions have organised protests since January in a rare voice of unity. Student unions have joined in.
