Massive protests resulted from the contentious and unilateral decision by the Macron government to increase the retirement age.
In a statement released on Saturday, the French police said that there were “severe dangers of disruptions to public order” at two protest areas across from the parliament in Paris.
Following two nights of ferocious public protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular decision to introduce neoliberal pension reforms without parliamentary approval, the “public thoroughfare in Place de la Concorde and its surroundings” and the area around Champs d’Elysees were deemed off-limits.
61 protesters were reportedly detained by police on Friday in the restricted areas after they threw bottles and pyrotechnics at the highly armed cops who had arrived to disperse the thousands-strong throng. Tear petrol bursts from the police were their response. As demonstrators reportedly attempted to break into and burn down a municipal hall in Lyon, another 36 people were detained.
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By 2030, the reform will raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and mandate a 43-year minimum contribution period before employees are eligible for a full pension. According to Macron, the action was required to keep the nation from entering an unstoppable debt cycle. The measure is opposed by two thirds of French citizens, and opposition lawmakers claim there are alternative ways to close the fiscal gap, such hiking taxes on the affluent.
The extremely controversial bill passed the Senate earlier this week, but Macron then forced it through the National Assembly without a vote in accordance with Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, which provides that laws can be passed as long as the administration is not censured by a majority of MPs. He said that there was “too much ambiguity” to put it to a vote.
After Macron’s moves, unions demanded a weekend of protest and a strike day on next Thursday, calling them “a blatant rejection of democracy.”
No-confidence resolutions were submitted by opposition legislators on the left and the right on Friday, and sources told AFP that they would likely be discussed on Monday. But, in order to overthrow the government, they would need the support of half of the Republican opposition; this is doubtful, according to French media.
Invoking the Yellow Vest movement of pre-Covid France, a revolt that also focused on Macron’s divisive neoliberal austerity plans, months of strikes and protests preceded the reform’s ratification.
