Violent French pension protests erupt as 1M people demonstrate

Protestors clash with police on the sidelines of a demonstration as part of a national day of strikes and protests in Nantes Friday. Pic/AFP

More than 1 million people demonstrated across France on Thursday against unpopular pension reforms, and violence erupted in some places as unions called for new nationwide strikes and protests next week.

The Interior Ministry said the march in Paris - marred by violence, as were numerous marches elsewhere - drew 1,19,000 people, which was a record for the capital during the pension protests. Polls say most French oppose President Emmanuel Macron's bill to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64, which he says is necessary to keep the system afloat.

Macron's office said Friday that a state visit by Britain's King Charles III has been postponed amid the mass strikes and protests. The king had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday. He was scheduled to visit Bordeaux on the second day of his trip to France. The heavy wooden door of the elegant Bordeaux City Hall was set afire and quickly destroyed Thursday evening by members of an unauthorized demonstration, the Sud Ouest newspaper said.

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Nationwide, more than a million people joined protest marches Thursday, the ministry said.

In Paris, street battles between police and black-clad, masked groups who attacked at least two fast food restaurants, a supermarket and a bank reflected intensifying violence and drew attention away from the tens of thousands of peaceful marchers.

Police, pelted by Molotov cocktails, objects and fireworks, charged multiple times and used tear gas to disperse rioters. A haze of tear gas fumes covered part of the Place de l'Opera, where demonstrators converged.

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