200 people have been arrested in Paris after a night of rioting against Macron’s pension reform
Paris police arrested more than 200 people Because of the riots that took place Thursday night in the French capital, in protest against the approval of the government of Emmanuel Macron of an article in the constitution to reform the retirement system, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
Specifically, 217 people were arrested after setting fires, damaging public furniture and after confronting security forces, as detailed in the Paris Police Headquarters report and arrested by the BFTM series.
Thousands of people gathered on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a few steps away from the French parliament, to denounce the “forced passage” of executive power when making use of Article 49.3 of the constitution for pension reform, which had not had the support of the National Assembly to proceed.
The newspaper stated that the police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators and remove them from the French National Assembly. After several hours of rioting, the tensions in the streets came to an end.
Meanwhile, the main unions in France have declared a big day of Demonstrations for next Thursday 23 March to demand the complete withdrawal of the reform, while the opposition will submit a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Elizabeth Born next Friday.
The protests come on a day when the French government decided to use Article 49.3 of the constitution, which avoids bringing the pension reform to a vote in the French National Assembly, after verifying that there is not a sufficient majority to implement one of the star projects of President Emmanuel Macron.
The French prime minister defended the implementation of Article 49.3 of the constitution and confirmed, during an interview on TF1 Info on Thursday, that they had worked “until the last minute” to obtain a majority on pension reform.
The French Prime Minister has acknowledged that she understands the “significant effort” the French will have to make to work “for another two years”, although she expressed that “Allowing people to think that we can pay everything with debt is not serious«.
Borne also commented on the booing, resignation chants and opposition chants during the day in a tense session of the National Assembly. This reflects that a certain number of opposition groups do not respect our institutions. “Some want chaos,” he said.
