During the protests against the French pension reform, the police arrested 172 people on Thursday and overnight, and 149 police officers were injured. It was written by the server of the newspaper Le Monde, according to which a part of the town hall, where the British King Charles III is to be welcomed on Tuesday, was on fire in the western French city of Bordeaux. French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne called the violence unacceptable.
Other demonstrations against the reform, which among other things increases the retirement age by two years to 64, were attended by 1.08 million people across France, according to the police, and even 3.5 million according to trade unionists.
In a number of places, the protests escalated and the police had to intervene. 140 fires were reported late Thursday evening in Paris alone. 103 people were arrested here.
In Bordeaux, part of the town hall briefly burned, while in Nantes, protesters broke into the building of the administrative court, ransacked the reception and broke windows and doors. Several shops were also damaged. In Lorient, in the north-west of the country of 68 million people, the city police station became the target of attacks by some of the demonstrators, while elsewhere cobblestones or firebombs were thrown at the police.
According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Thursday’s protests, for which he criticized the extreme left, caused significantly more damage than previous demonstrations.
According to the government, the pension reform is necessary, otherwise there is a risk of the collapse of the pension system. In addition to increasing the retirement age, the number of years of service required to receive the full amount of the pension is also to be increased.
