PARIS, Feb 7 pension reform in Paris, detentions began, a correspondent reports from the scene.
Black bloc radicals on protests against raising the retirement age in Paris began to throw firecrackers and glass bottles at the police and build barricades. In response, the police used tear gas to disperse the protesters. The first arrests began.
Earlier, the radicals began to destroy the windows of cafes and shops, set fire to garbage cans and break billboards.
The third large-scale protest against pension reform is taking place in Paris. According to the trade union «General Confederation of Labor» (CGT), 400 thousand people take part in it. Among the participants are representatives of various industries, students and members of the university community, doctors, leftist and youth organizations, supporters of the «yellow vests» movement. The marchers carry banners of the leading French trade unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU), chant the slogans «Pension at 60!», «Macron, take your hands off our pensions», «No reform without universal approval», «Raise wages, not the retirement age.» Earlier, demonstrations also began in the major French cities of Rene, Montpellier, Marseille, Bordeaux and Strasbourg. More than 200 demonstrations will take place in France on Tuesday.
On the eve of the head of the country's Interior Ministry, Gerald Darmanin, said that 11,000 police officers would monitor order at demonstrations against pension reform, of which 4,000 were in Paris. The demonstrations are accompanied by strikes in a number of sectors of the economy. The movement of trains in the Paris metro, commuter trains and high-speed intercity trains was disrupted. More than half of TotalEnergies' refinery workers are also on strike, disrupting French oil production on Tuesday. According to BFMTV, about a million workers in the education sector are also on strike.
On Monday, a majority of deputies in the French National Assembly rejected the proposal of the left-wing coalition «New People's Ecological and Social Union» (Nupes) to hold a referendum on the draft pension reform. French trade unions have already announced that they plan to hold their next national manifestation on Saturday 11 February.
French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born on January 10 presented a draft of the controversial pension reform, which the government plans to adopt in 2023. According to her, the authorities will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1, 2023. Thus, by 2030 he will reach 64 years.
The first nationwide strike against pension reform took place throughout France on January 19 — more than 200 demonstrations were held on that day at the call of eight leading French trade unions. The largest actions took place in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Nantes. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country, more than a million people took part in them, of which 80 thousand were in Paris. 38 people were detained. The second nationwide strike against the increase in the retirement age, held on January 31st, was attended by 2.8 million people, 87,000 of them in Paris, according to the Confederation General de labour (CGT) trade union.