Police in Paris have started using tear gas against protesters demonstrating against the controversial pension reform, with protests turning into riots shorty after their start, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Thursday
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th April, 2023) Police in Paris have started using tear gas against protesters demonstrating against the controversial pension reform, with protests turning into riots shorty after their start, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Thursday.
Radicals from the black bloc movement started breaking windows of banks and shops and throwing stones and cans of paint at law enforcement officers, with the police responding by using tear gas against protesters.
The participants of the protest carry banners saying "It will end badly," "Where is democracy?", "Paris is furious" and shouting slogans: "Macron, this is war!", "Macron, get out!" and� "We fought and won, we will fight for retirement at the age of 60."
The manifestation against the reform began at the Place de l'Opera in Paris, with tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets in the French capital alone, the RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
Earlier in the day, the BFMTV broadcaster reported that the police used water cannons to scatter the protesters in the city of Rennes.
The 12th nationwide protests against the controversial pension reform is currently taking place across France, with some 600,000 people participating, according to the authorities. Protesters have taken to the street a day before the vote of the French Constitutional Council on whether the reform complies with current national legislation. If the law is approved, it will go into effect on September 1.
On March 16, the French prime minister announced that the government had adopted a law on gradually raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 by invoking Article 49.3 of the constitution, which allowed the bill to be passed without parliamentary approval. The decision sparked a strong backlash, prompting people to take to the streets across the country.
