Chaos in France as police fire tear gas at ‘800,000’ pension protesters

There has been fresh chaos across France today with protestors clashing with police, as over a million people demonstrated against the controversial pension reforms pushed through parliament last week.

Bordeaux City Hall was set on fire amid pension reform protests in France.

President Emmanuel Macron has advised Britain’s King Charles III to postpone his planned trip, saying, “We would not be serious … to make a state visit in the middle of protests.” https://t.co/v0Ud7hqkA4 pic.twitter.com/0gttpb5lJS

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2023

Firemen had to put out flames which were engulfing the front door of the town hall there, as crowds of protestors watched on.

In Paris, police fired teargas and baton-charged crowds on the Grands Boulevards thoroughfare, while some protestors were seen throwing rocks and even shooting fireworks at police.

Fires were lit and have been blazing into the night, with pallets and piles of uncollected rubbish set ablaze, leading firefighters and even local residents to intervene,reported Daily Mail.

Massive anti-Macron protests happening in France right now are not receiving the wall-to-wall headline news coverage in Western media that they deserve despite their size and significance. Hypocrisy at its finest. pic.twitter.com/6nRuCanjDz

— sarah (@sahouraxo) March 24, 2023

Pension reform: French government will not ‘yield to violence’ Macron says

French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned violence that erupted in Thursday’s demonstrations against raising the French retirement age and said he would not give in to it.

“We will yield nothing to violence, I condemn violence with the utmost strength,” Macron told a news conference, after an EU Summit in Brussels, on Friday.

Macron is under pressure to find a way out of a crisis that has seen some of France’s worst street violence in years over a pension bill he has pushed through parliament without a vote.

Strikes have caused widespread disruption in France, yet Macron vowed the government would continue with the “democratic process” to legalise the reform, which is now being examined by France’s highest constitutional authority.

“The pension reform is before the Constitutional Council and it is obvious that we will wait for the decision of the Constitutional Council,” Macron said. “We continue to move forward, France cannot be at a standstill.”

The head of state also said he was ready to talk to union leaders once the Constitutional Council has made its decision on the pension reform bill.

JUST IN: Some reports now indicating almost 9 MILLION people joined France’ week long protests last night..

IS FRANCE OVERTHROWING IT’S GOV’T? pic.twitter.com/wefTh3s9eY

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) March 24, 2023

“I have indicated our availability to move forward on issues such as professional decline, the end of careers, retraining, career development, working conditions, and remuneration in certain sectors,” he said.

“I am at the disposal of the joint unions if they wish to come and meet me to make progress on all these subjects.”

As protests are expected to continue next week, a planned state visit to France from Britain’s King Charles III has been postponed.

🇫🇷 France 🇫🇷

No-one protests as well as the French-they are at it day in day out!

No wonder our Governments want to ban protesting,invoke emergency powers,military & control communication over internet

They know whats coming as they tighten their authoritarian grip#Macron pic.twitter.com/f3QW2EssbS

— Concerned Citizen (@cotupacs) March 20, 2023