French cities are full of protesters again. 13,000 police officers have also been assigned to the streets.
Demonstrations and strikes against the pension reform have continued across France. Tuesday was the tenth nationwide day of action against the pension reform passed by the government.
The demonstrations started in the middle of January.
Almost a million French people are expected for the demonstrations in different parts of the country, a hundred thousand participants are coming to the streets of Paris alone. The trade union CGT estimates that there will be 450,000 protesters on the streets of Paris on Tuesday.
This time, more youth and students are participating in the demonstrations than before. Up to a hundred thousand young people are expected to support the trade union demonstrations.
Since the morning, protesters have been blocking highway entrances in several cities. There have been interruptions in train and air traffic as well as energy deliveries.
One of the demonstrations will be resolved tomorrow, when the garbage drivers in Paris, who have been on strike since the beginning of March, end their strike. The streets of Paris have been dominated by litter bags.
The police are afraid of infiltrating hooligans
The last few protests have turned violent, with police clashing with protesters in several French cities.
According to the police, a thousand radical instigators of violence have infiltrated the demonstrations, whose goal is to cause confusion.
As of Tuesday, 13,000 police officers have been ordered to the streets around the country, of which 5,500 police officers are patrolling the streets of Paris alone.
Minister of the Interior by Gérald Darmanin according to which an exceptionally visible police effort is necessary because the demonstrations pose a danger to public order.
On the other hand, the police have been accused of excessive violence when they have broken up demonstrations.
The government’s intervention is annoying
President Emmanuel Macron the government wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. The government rushed through the pension reform in such a way that the National Assembly, i.e. the French Parliament, did not get to vote on it at all.
The government’s procedure has caused a great deal of outrage.
The trade unions want the reform on the shelf, but the government is not going to back down. The trade unions have also proposed a special mediator to mediate the dispute, but the government has not agreed to that either.
Sources: REUTERS, AFP, AP