MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2023) The number of people detained during protests against the controversial pension reform in central Paris has risen to 217, French broadcaster BMFTV reported early Friday, citing a police report.
On Thursday, Le Figaro newspaper reported, citing a police source, that at least 73 people were detained in Paris, adding that the number could increase as police units were chasing several hundred protesters, who scattered through the city streets after the police dispersed the crowd on the Place de la Concorde.
On Thursday, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that the government had adopted the law on raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 years by invoking Article 49.3 of the constitution, which allowed the government to pass the bill without parliamentary approval.
Protests against the reform, which resulted in violent clashes with police, were held in almost all major French cities on Thursday. Laurent Berger, the secretary general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labour, announced another general strike against the pension reform on March 23.
In January, Borne unveiled a draft of the controversial pension reform that the government plans to adopt in 2023. Under the reform project, the French authorities intend to gradually raise the retirement age in the country by three months per year starting from September 1, 2023. By 2030, the retirement age will reach 64.
The draft reform has caused a massive backlash in French society. There have already been seven general strikes and hundreds of demonstrations in France within the last two months, with over 1 million people taking part in most of them. During the protests, clashes often broke out between the police and protesters.
