Paris: France on Saturday banned protests in front of parliament after a second night of unrest sparked by the president Emmanuel Macron Enacting an unpopular pension overhaul without a vote of Parliament.
Peaceful marches were however underway in other parts of the country after Macron’s government invoked a controversial executive power to implement the bill through decree on Thursday.
The move sparked angry protests from across the political class as well as on the street, presenting the 45-year-old leader with one of his biggest challenges in less than a year into his second and final mandate.
According to parliamentary sources, opposition MPs have filed two no-confidence motions against the government for debate in Parliament on Monday afternoon.
He hopes to get enough support to collapse the cabinet and repeal the law to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Paris police banned demonstrations in the capital on Saturday place de la concord Across the Seine River from the parliament, after clashes over the past two nights between some protesters and police.
It said it was doing so “due to serious risks of disturbing public order”.
But in other parts of the country, people marched after unions called for a week of protests.
An AFP reporter said some 300 people gathered in the eastern city of Besançon on Saturday morning.
One of them, Nathalie, a woman in her thirties, threw her voter registration card into the fire.
Refusing to give his surname, he said, “I elected my Member of Parliament but they have been denied the right to vote. We are in the midst of a denial of democracy.”
Phillip MartinezThe head of the CGT union marched among some 200 people in the town of Meaux outside Paris.
Others rallied in the northern port city of Le Havre.
“Macron, at 45 is already deaf?” read a sign on the back of a protester’s jacket.
Unions have called for a nationwide strike and another day of rallies on Thursday.
– Overnight unrest – Thousands rallied on Friday in the capital’s Place de la Concorde to express their frustration at the government implementing reforms despite two months of strikes and demonstrations against the changes.
AFP reporters said police moved into the night to disperse crowds after a fire broke out in the Place de la Concorde.
Groups of people threw bottles and fireworks at security forces, who fired tear gas to try to clear the square. Police said they made 61 arrests.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, protesters tried to storm a town hall and set the building on fire, police said, which reported 36 arrests.
Opinion polls have shown that nearly two-thirds of French people oppose the reform, which would require people to work longer to earn a full pension.
The government has said it is necessary to keep the system from running into losses, and bring France in line with its European neighbors where the legal retirement age is generally later in life.
But critics say the changes are unfair to people who start working at younger ages in physically demanding jobs, and to women who interrupt their careers to raise children.
Protests since mid-January have drawn some of the biggest crowds in decades, but popular agitation began to subside in the days before the government introduced the bill.
However, the capital’s municipal waste collectors continue a rolling strike as an estimated 10,000 tonnes of garbage rots on the streets till Friday.
A union representative, however, said on Saturday that striking three incinerators outside Paris would let some garbage trucks go “to limit the risk of an epidemic”.
In the energy sector, the CGT union has said strikers will stop production at two refineries by the end of this week or until Monday.
National train operator SNCF’s unions on Friday urged workers to continue with another ongoing strike, which has caused major disruption to the network.
long vowel made pension reform the centerpiece of his re-election campaign last year.
But the former banker lost his parliamentary majority after elections to the National Assembly in June.
The government on Thursday invoked controversial Article 49.3 of the Constitution as it feared it would not have enough support in the lower house to get a vote on the pension bill.
but the prime minister Elizabeth BourneThe cabinet is widely expected to survive any no-confidence vote.
The proposal would require support from about half the group of opposition right-wing Republicans, a scenario considered highly unlikely.
Peaceful marches were however underway in other parts of the country after Macron’s government invoked a controversial executive power to implement the bill through decree on Thursday.
The move sparked angry protests from across the political class as well as on the street, presenting the 45-year-old leader with one of his biggest challenges in less than a year into his second and final mandate.
According to parliamentary sources, opposition MPs have filed two no-confidence motions against the government for debate in Parliament on Monday afternoon.
He hopes to get enough support to collapse the cabinet and repeal the law to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Paris police banned demonstrations in the capital on Saturday place de la concord Across the Seine River from the parliament, after clashes over the past two nights between some protesters and police.
It said it was doing so “due to serious risks of disturbing public order”.
But in other parts of the country, people marched after unions called for a week of protests.
An AFP reporter said some 300 people gathered in the eastern city of Besançon on Saturday morning.
One of them, Nathalie, a woman in her thirties, threw her voter registration card into the fire.
Refusing to give his surname, he said, “I elected my Member of Parliament but they have been denied the right to vote. We are in the midst of a denial of democracy.”
Phillip MartinezThe head of the CGT union marched among some 200 people in the town of Meaux outside Paris.
Others rallied in the northern port city of Le Havre.
“Macron, at 45 is already deaf?” read a sign on the back of a protester’s jacket.
Unions have called for a nationwide strike and another day of rallies on Thursday.
– Overnight unrest – Thousands rallied on Friday in the capital’s Place de la Concorde to express their frustration at the government implementing reforms despite two months of strikes and demonstrations against the changes.
AFP reporters said police moved into the night to disperse crowds after a fire broke out in the Place de la Concorde.
Groups of people threw bottles and fireworks at security forces, who fired tear gas to try to clear the square. Police said they made 61 arrests.
In the southeastern city of Lyon, protesters tried to storm a town hall and set the building on fire, police said, which reported 36 arrests.
Opinion polls have shown that nearly two-thirds of French people oppose the reform, which would require people to work longer to earn a full pension.
The government has said it is necessary to keep the system from running into losses, and bring France in line with its European neighbors where the legal retirement age is generally later in life.
But critics say the changes are unfair to people who start working at younger ages in physically demanding jobs, and to women who interrupt their careers to raise children.
Protests since mid-January have drawn some of the biggest crowds in decades, but popular agitation began to subside in the days before the government introduced the bill.
However, the capital’s municipal waste collectors continue a rolling strike as an estimated 10,000 tonnes of garbage rots on the streets till Friday.
A union representative, however, said on Saturday that striking three incinerators outside Paris would let some garbage trucks go “to limit the risk of an epidemic”.
In the energy sector, the CGT union has said strikers will stop production at two refineries by the end of this week or until Monday.
National train operator SNCF’s unions on Friday urged workers to continue with another ongoing strike, which has caused major disruption to the network.
long vowel made pension reform the centerpiece of his re-election campaign last year.
But the former banker lost his parliamentary majority after elections to the National Assembly in June.
The government on Thursday invoked controversial Article 49.3 of the Constitution as it feared it would not have enough support in the lower house to get a vote on the pension bill.
but the prime minister Elizabeth BourneThe cabinet is widely expected to survive any no-confidence vote.
The proposal would require support from about half the group of opposition right-wing Republicans, a scenario considered highly unlikely.