Refinery strikes continued in France on Saturday and more demonstrations were taking place across the country amid anger at the government for pushing for an increase in the state retirement age without a parliamentary vote.
The growing unrest, combined with the rubbish piling up on the streets of Paris after garbage workers joined the action, has left President Emmanuel Macron with the most serious challenge to his authority since protests by so-called “Gilets Jaunes” (Yellow Vests) from December 2018.
About 37% of the operating staff at TotalEnergies refineries and warehouses – in places like Feyzin in southeastern France and Normandy in the north – were on strike on Saturday, a company spokesman said. Also, strikes on the railways continued.
Riot police clashed with protesters on the Place de la Concorde in Paris near the National Assembly headquarters on Friday night, arresting 61 people.
The Paris Prefecture banned gatherings on the Place de la Concorde and the nearby Champs-Elysees on Saturday. However, another concentration was planned in the Plaza de Italia, in the south of the capital.
Elsewhere in Paris, a group of students and activists from the “Permanent Revolution” collective briefly invaded the Forum des Halles shopping mall, waving banners calling for a general strike and chanting “Paris stand up, rise up,” videos on the streets showed. social networks.
BFM television also showed images of demonstrations in cities such as Compiegne (north), Nantes (west) and Marseille (south). “There is no place for violence. Parliamentary democracy must be respected,” the Minister of Digital Transition and Telecommunications, Jean-Noel Barrot, told Radio Sud.
A broad alliance of the main French unions has declared that it will continue to mobilize to try to force a change in course of the reform. A day of mobilizations throughout the country is scheduled for Thursday.
By Dominique Vidalon.-
Source: Ambito
