French protesters target Paris restaurant favoured by Macron (updated)

Perk Labs

06/04/2023 09:05

(Adds clashes in Paris, Rennes)
    By Antony Paone, Stephane Mahe and Ingrid Melander
       PARIS, April 6 (Reuters) - Clashes erupted in Paris on
Thursday next to a Left Bank brasserie popular with President
Emmanuel Macron, during a day of nationwide protests against a
pension bill that he has pushed through despite widespread
opposition.
        La Rotonde, where the awning was briefly on fire as
protesters threw stones, bottles and paint at police, is well
known in France for hosting a celebratory dinner by Macron as he
led the first round of the 2017 presidential election.
  
        Protests have gathered huge crowds since January against
the flagship reform of Macron's second term, which lifts the
retirement age by two years to 64.
  
        But the rallies and strikes have also coalesced
widespread anger against Macron, who is often the target of
banners and chants.
  
        "Strike, blockade, Macron walk away!" protesters chanted
in the western city of Rennes, where police fired tear gas at
protesters who threw projectiles at them and set bins on fire.
  
        The protests have otherwise been largely peaceful,
though violence has broken out on the fringes in cities across
France.              
        Polls show a wide majority of French oppose the pension
legislation and the government's decision to push it through
parliament without a vote. But a source close to Macron said
that was not what mattered.
    "If the role of a president of the republic is to make
decisions according to public opinion, there is no need to have
elections," the source said. "Being president is to assume
choices that may be unpopular at a given time."
    Labour groups have vowed to dig in their heels after talks
with Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Wednesday, which lasted
just an hour, failed to break the stalemate.
    Union leaders and protesters said the only way out of the
crisis was for the legislation to be scrapped, an option which
Borne and Macron have repeatedly rejected.
    
    CHALLENGE    
    "There is no other solution than withdrawing the reform,"
the new leader of the hardline CGT union, Sophie Binet, said at
the start of the Paris rally.
    Thursday's marches - the 11th nationwide day of protests in
the past three months - could provide an indication of whether
the drawn-out rallies are losing steam or gaining momentum.
    The previous day of demonstrations on March 28 drew smaller
crowds, according to the Interior Ministry, with 740,000 people
protesting across the country compared with a record 1.28
million seen on March 7.    
    Trains were less heavily disrupted than in previous days of
strikes against the reform.
    The civil aviation authority asked airlines to cut flights
by 20% in cities like Bordeaux and Marseille, but not at Paris
airports like in previous strikes since mid-January.
    Some 20% of primary school teachers are also expected to
join the strike, local media quoted the Snuipp-FSU union as
saying, down from previous walkouts.
    The latest wave of demonstrations represents the most
serious challenge to the authority of Macron since the "Yellow
Vest" revolt four years ago.    
    A key date will be April 14, when the Constitutional Council
delivers its verdict on the pension bill. Constitutional experts
say it is unlikely to strike the legislation down, which the
government likely hopes will help weaken protests.
    "Mobilisation will continue, one way or another ... It's a
long distance race," the CGT's Binet said.

 (Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi, Tassilo Hummel,
Elizabeth Pineau, Kate Etringer, Jean-Stephane-Brosse, Michel
Rose, Benoit Van Overstraeten; writing by Ingrid Melander;
editing by Hugh Lawson and Mark Heinrich)
 ((silvia.aloisi@thomsonreuters.com; +393487607044; Reuters
Messaging: silvia.aloisi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))