FIREFIGHTERS PUT OUT STREET BLAZE IN PARIS AFTER PENSION REFORM PROTESTS – This marks the ninth day of street protests in Paris
Emergency services extinguished fires on the streets of Paris after demonstrators set trash ablaze during protesters against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age.
In a ninth day of nationwide protests, train and air travel was disrupted while teachers were among many professions to walk off the job, just days after the government pushed through legislation to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
demonstrations in central Paris were generally peaceful, but smaller groups of “Black Bloc” anarchists smashed shop windows, demolished street furniture and ransacked a Mcdonald’s restaurant. Clashes ensued as riot police moved in and drove back the anarchists with tear gas and stun grenades.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 123 police officers had been injured and 80 people arrested across the country.
Labour unions fear that protests could turn more violent if the government does not heed the growing popular anger over pension curbs.
Unions called for regional action over the weekend and new nationwide strikes and protests on March 28, the day Britain’s King Charles III is due to travel to Bordeaux from Paris by train.
