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Paris police have clashed with demonstrators for a third night as thousands of people marched throughout the country amid anger at the government pushing through a rise in the state pension age without a parliamentary vote.
Key points:
- Protests erupted after the French government pushed through its controversial decision to raise the retirement age
- Riot police used tear gas to disperse protesters in Paris who set fire to rubbish bins
- Protests are expected to continue as unions, student groups, and others demand a reversal of the decision
French President Emmanuel Macron has been facing intensified protests and a no-confidence motion in parliament after pushing through a contentious pension reform without a vote in the lower house.
Despite two months of strikes and some of the biggest protests in decades, Mr Macron's government on Thursday imposed the bill to hike the retirement age from 62 to 64.
The move sparked angry demonstrations across the country, with more than 300 people arrested nationwide, according to the interior minister. Protests have continued and grown since the bill was imposed.
"Macron, Resign!" and "Macron is going to break down; we are going to win," demonstrators chanted on the Place d'Italie in southern Paris.
Riot police used tear gas and clashed with some in the crowd as rubbish bins were set on fire.
The growing unrest and strikes have been the gravest challenge facing Mr Macron's authority since the so-called "Yellow Vests" protests four years ago, and come less than one year into his second and final mandate.
Municipal authorities had banned rallies on Paris's central Place de la Concorde and nearby Champ-Elysees on Saturday night after demonstrations that resulted in 61 arrests the previous night. There were 81 arrests on Saturday night.
Earlier in the French capital, a group of students and activists from the "Revolution Permanente" collective briefly invaded the Forum des Halles shopping mall, waving banners calling for a general strike and shouting "Paris stand up, rise up", videos on social media showed.
BFM television also showed images of demonstrations underway in cities such as Compiegne in the north, Nantes in the west and Marseille in the south. In Bordeaux, in the south-west, police also used tear gas against protesters who had started a fire.
"The reform must be implemented … violence cannot be tolerated," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisian newspaper.
A broad alliance of France's main unions said it would continue to mobilise to try to force a U-turn on the changes. A day of nationwide industrial action is scheduled for Thursday.
Soumaya Gentet, 51, a CGT union member from supermarket chain Monoprix, said she was angry and would continue to protest until the bill was revoked.
"They're not taking into account what the people want," she said.
Her colleague Lamia Kerrouzi agreed.
"Macron doesn't give a fig about the people," she said.
"He doesn't understand the language of the people. It needs to be repealed."
In the energy sector, strikers were to halt production at a large refinery by this weekend or Monday at the latest, CGT union representative Eric Sellini said.
Strikers continued to deliver less fuel than normal from several other sites, he added.
Unions have called for another day of mass strikes and protests, branding the government's move "a complete denial of democracy".
'Total failure'
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invoking article 49.3 of the constitution to impose the pension overhaul by decree also provoked tumult in parliament and moves to file a motion of no-confidence in the government.
Mr Macron put the pensions reform, which also seeks to increase the number of years people have to work to receive a full pension, at the centre of his re-election campaign last year.
But the 45-year-old centrist lost his parliamentary majority in June after elections for the lower-house National Assembly.
"We can't take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate come to nothing," Ms Borne told parliament as she invoked article 49.3 amid jeers and boos from the opposition.
The move amounted to an admission the cabinet lacked a majority in the lower house to make the changes, despite appealing to the right-wing opposition Republicans party for support.
Ms Borne has used the controversial constitutional loophole 11 times since becoming head of government last year.
A bill is then considered adopted unless lawmakers vote no confidence in the government.
Several opposition parties, including the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen, were set to call the no-confidence vote by Friday afternoon.
Ms Borne's cabinet is largely expected to survive, thanks to backing from the Republicans, despite an increasingly febrile political situation.
Ms Le Pen has called Thursday's cabinet move "a total failure for the government", while Jean-Luc Melenchon of the LFI urged for "spontaneous rallies across the country".
AFP/Reuters