457 arrested, 441 security forces injured in France unrest: minister

PARIS: A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 security forces were injured on Thursday during nationwide protests against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pensions reform, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Speaking to the CNews channel on Friday morning, Darmanin also said that there had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January.

A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 security forces injured on Thursday during nationwide protests against French President Emmanuel Macron's pensions reform, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Speaking to the CNews channel on Friday morning, Darmanin also said that there had been 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January.

"There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris," Darmanin added, saying the toll was "difficult" while praising the police for protecting the more than million people who marched around France.

Police had warned that anarchist groups were expected to infiltrate the Paris march and young men wearing hoods and facemasks were seen smashing windows and setting fire to uncollected rubbish in the latter stages of the demonstration.

Darmanin, a rightwing hardliner in Macron's centrist government, dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform which cleared parliament last week in controversial circumstances.

"I don't think we should withdraw this law because of violence," he said. "If so, that means there's no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate."

Elsewhere on Thursday, the entrance to Bordeaux city hall was set on fire during clashes in the southwestern wine-exporting hub.

"I have difficulty in understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism," the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, told RTL radio on Friday.

"Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms."

British King Charles III is set to visit the southwestern city next Tuesday, and had been expected to visit the city hall and meet with Hurmic.

In perhaps the most visible sign of the movement, thousands of tonnes of trash have piled up on the streets of Paris, rendering some sidewalks impassable. Garbage collectors plan to continue the strike through Monday.

The ninth day of action against the pension overhaul saw 1.09 million people turn out across the country, according to the Interior Ministry.

The portion of public-sector workers joining in walkouts was up sharply on Thursday from a week earlier, though well below its peak on the first day of protests in mid-January, preliminary government figures showed.

Macron, who had largely left his prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, to bear the brunt of pushing the pension reform through parliament, appeared on French TV on Wednesday and argued the overhaul is needed for the sake of public finances.

He further stoked outrage on the streets and on social media when he compared protesters to those who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and those who invaded the Brazilian parliament last year. His mistake was that he didn’t manage to convince the French people, he said.

The president added: “We cannot accept rebels and factions.”

Polls suggest most French people oppose the plan to raise the retirement age, backing labor unions, which are especially critical of the decision to use a constitutional provision that allowed him to bypass a vote in the National Assembly.

“Macron doesn’t listen to anybody. He acts like a monarch,” said Marc Stalin, a member of the CGT union and retired railways worker who participated in Thursday’s protest. He vowed to continue demonstrating. “There is no other option.”

Survey says protests legitimate

A Harris Interactive survey of 1,100 adults carried out on March 17-20 for Challenges magazine shows 61 per cent consider it legitimate to pursue strikes after he resorted to the so-called Article 49.3.

Even among those who want Macron to back down, there’s little hope that he’ll change course, however. A survey of 1,007 adults carried out by pollster Ifop on March 21-22 for Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed 79% think the government won’t abandon the reform in the face of further protests.

Olivier Marleix, the head of the conservative Republicans in the lower house of parliament, urged Macron to start talks with unions, adding that while he backed the gist of the pension reform the French leader should change his behavior.

The president, who has repeatedly pledged he would change his ruling style to better include grassroots forces, has seen his popularity sink to the lowest level since the Yellow Vest protests in early 2019, according to an Ifop poll for Le Journal du Dimanche, with a satisfaction rate of just 28 per cent.

Demonstrations have burst out sporadically since Monday, with the Interior Ministry saying hundreds of people were arrested this week. Agence-France Presse reported clashes with police on Thursday in some cities in western France.

Macron has so far ruled out snap elections, reshuffling his government or amending the reform to quell tensions.

“We aren’t seeing any attempt or dream to gain power or to change the government: It’s an opposition movement,” said Michel Wieviorka, a French sociologist who has worked on social movements. “There’s thirst for democracy and opposition to a world organized by technocrats, and anger from the feeling of being despised.”