French unions announce large-scale protests

Up to 600,000 people are expected to rally against pension reform in France on June 6, Figaro reported.

“The authorities fear tension in the columns of demonstrators across the country, about 250 actions are planned in total,” – the message says.

According to preliminary estimates by law enforcement agencies, 400,000 to 600,000 people are expected to attend rallies across the country. In the capital, from 40 to 70 thousand people can take part in the protests. Up to a thousand radical citizens are also expected to be present in the column of demonstrators.

The protesters will march from the Esplanade of the Invalides to the Plaza Italia. On the route of the march is the building of the National Assembly of France, as well as the restaurant “Rotonde”, in which the President of France Emmanuel Macron celebrated the election victory in 2017. During one of the previous demonstrations, protesters set fire to the restaurant’s canopy, part of it managed to completely burn out before firefighters managed to put out the fire. According to police sources, this makes the demonstration route “one of the most difficult” for law enforcement officers. This will be the fourteenth nationwide protest against raising the retirement age since the introduction of the reform.

In January, the French authorities announced a draft pension reform, which caused a wave of mass protests in the country. Most of them gathered more than a million participants across the country. Prime Minister of France Elizabeth Born On March 16, she used Article 49.3 of the constitution to pass a bill to raise the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote in parliament. After that, the protests became more violent, the police began to increasingly use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the demonstrations. On April 14, the French Constitutional Council finally approved the key article of the bill, which provides for a gradual increase in the retirement age in the country by 2030.