PARIS, 28 Mar: Protests and strikes against unpopular pension reforms gripped France again Tuesday, with many thousands marching and the Eiffel Tower closed and police ramping up security amid government warnings that radical demonstrators intended \u201cto destroy, to injure and to kill.\u201d
\nConcerns that violence could mar the large demonstrations prompted what Interior Minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin described as an unprecedented deployment of 13,000 officers, nearly half of them concentrated in the French capital.
\nAfter months of upheaval, an exit from the firestorm of protest triggered by President Emmanuel Macron \u2019s changes to France\u2019s retirement system looked as far away as ever. Despite fresh union pleas that the government pause its hotly contested push to raise France\u2019s legal retirement age from 62 to 64, Macron seemingly remained wedded to it.
\nThe French leader previously used a special constitutional power to ram the reform past legislators without allowing them a vote. His move this month further galvanized the protest movement. Violence has since flared and thousands of tons of stinking garbage have piled up on Paris\u2019 streets as sanitation workers strike.
\nThe Eiffel Tower\u2019s website announced that strikers had closed down the world-famous tourist attraction. The Louvre Museum was similarly strike-bound on Monday.
\n\u201cEverybody is getting madder,\u201d said Cl\u00e9ment Saild, a train passenger at Paris\u2019 Gare de Lyon railway station, where tracks were temporarily invaded and blocked Tuesday by protesting workers.
\nHe said said he supports the strikes despite their impact on transportation and other services.
\n\u201cI am 26, and I wonder if I will ever retire,\u201d he said.
\nAnother passenger, Helene Cogan, 70, said: \u201cFrench people are stubborn and things are getting out of hand.\u201d
\nThe wave of protests Tuesday marked the 10th time since January that unions have called on workers to walk out and for demonstrators to flood the nation\u2019s streets against Macron\u2019s retirement changes, which are a key priority of his second term as president.
\nHis government argues that France\u2019s pension system will dive into deficit without reform, because of the lower birth rates and longer life expectancy in many richer nations. Macron\u2019s opponents say additional funding for pensions could come from other sources, without having to make workers retire later.
\nDemonstrations got underway peacefully Tuesday morning, with large crowds in multiple cities. But police reported being pelted with objects and responded with tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the western city of Nantes and were braced for violence elsewhere.
\nThe interior minister said more than 1,000 \u201cradical\u201d troublemakers, some from overseas, could latch on to marches in Paris and other cities.
\n\u201cThey come to destroy, to injure and to kill police officers and gendarmes. Their goals have nothing to do with the pension reform. Their goals are to destabilize our republican institutions and bring blood and fire down on France,\u201d the minister said Monday in detailing the policing.
\nSome protesters, human rights campaigners and Macron\u2019s political opponents allege that police officers have used excessive force against demonstrators. A police oversight body is investigating multiple claims of wrongdoing by officers.
\nThe striking railway workers outside Gare de Lyon marched behind a banner that alleged: \u201cThe police mutilates. We don\u2019t forgive!\u201d
\nLucie Henry, a 36-year-old protester, said that by skirting parliament to impose his reform, Macron \u201chas set everyone on fire.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat adds fuel to the fire is the behavior of the government, the police violence in particular,\u201d she said.
\nMacron\u2019s opponents are urging him to cool tempers by backing down. Union leader Laurent Berger appealed Tuesday for a pause in implementing the retirement reform and for mediation.
\n\u201cIf we want to avoid tensions \u2014 and I want to avoid them \u2014- what the trade unions are proposing is a gesture to calm things down,\u201d he said. \u201cIt must be seized.\u201d
\nBut government spok-esman Olivier Veran said mediation wasn\u2019t needed for unions and the govern-ment to talk to each other.
\nThe latest round of protests prompted Macron to indefinitely postpone a planned state visit this week by King Charles III.
\nVeran insisted, however, that France remains a welcoming place for all non-royal visitors.
\n\u201cLife goes on,\u201d he said. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 28 Mar: Protests and strikes against unpopular pension reforms gripped France again Tuesday, with many thousands marching and the Eiffel Tower closed and police ramping up security amid government warnings that radical demonstrators intended \u201cto destroy, to injure and to kill.\u201d Concerns that violence could mar the large demonstrations prompted what Interior Minister G\u00e9rald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-213796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}