CNN
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Protesters on the tracks at a Paris rail station. Smoke bombs let off at Biarritz airport. Anger at French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms showed no sign of letting up on Tuesday as the nation prepared for a 10th day of nationwide demonstrations.
Sweeping protests have paralyzed major services across the country in recent weeks over Macron’s proposal to raise the retirement age for most workers from 62 to 64, in a move that as riled opposition lawmakers and trade unions.
Up to 900,000 protesters were expected to join 240 rallies planned throughout France on Tuesday, with 100,000 protesters anticipated to fill the streets of the capital alone, according to CNN affiliate BFM. Demonstators had started to fill the streets of Paris early in the afternoon.
Videos on social media verified by CNN showed smoke bombs being let off by protesters outside the entrance of Biarritz Airport, and the boarding area of the terminal, before an evacuation announcement sounded over the speakers. Further north, protesters walked on the train tracks at Paris’ Gare de Lyon railway station, according to CNN affiliate BFM.
Earlier this month, scenes emerged of waste piles littering Parisian neighborhoods, as massive strikes against the reforms affected the city’s trash pickup services. However, the CGT union said earlier that trash collectors will suspend their strike from Wednesday.
The government pressed on with the hugely unpopular bill without a vote last week, after two failed no-confidence votes cleared the way for the pension reforms. It says that relying on the working population to pay for a growing age group of retirees is no longer fit for purpose.
Blocking airports has been a tactic used by anti-pension reform protesters nationwide, with terminal 1 at Charles de Gaulle airport, just north of Paris, also being cut off on Thursday morning.
At least four groups can be identified in the footage based on their insignia, including a local Basque trade union and two national associations – the CGT Departmental Union of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Fédération syndicale unitaire (FSU).
The FSU – which streamed a live video from Tuesday’s protest inside the airport – is one of France’s main trade unions in its education sector, representing “162,000 members, of whom 88% are teachers,” according to its website.
The CGT is one of five major trade unions nationwide, with branches across the country.
CNN has attempted to contact both the FSU and CGT and cannot independently confirm how many people were present at the airport protest or how the event unfolded.
Unions leaders called on President Macron to put the controversial pension reform on hold, as clashes between police and protesters ramped up against a backdrop of rising street violence.
Philippe Martinez, the head of the CGT union, told CNN affiliate BFM-TV on Tuesday that Macron should “suspend his project and appoint a mediator.”
Protests have become more violent since Macron rammed the legislation through the French National Assembly, using a constitutional clause that allows the government to bypass a vote.
In the last fortnight there have been hundreds of acts of vandalism against public buildings and political offices, as well as over 2,000 incidents of arson, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. He said that there are currently 17 investigations by the General Inspectorate of the National Police that concern the pension reform demonstrations.
Darmanin said French authorities deployed an unprecedented 13,000 police officers across the country on Tuesday, including 5,500 officers in the capital Paris, adding that his ministry “anticipates high risks to the public order” during the protests. He said that “more than 1,000 radical individuals” will possibly join the marches organized in the capital and in other cities.
The French Defender of Rights – an independent government administrative authority to defend individual rights – called for a “de-escalation” in the violence on the part of police and protesters.
“I condemn any act of violence, and I have a thought for all the victims, whether they are the demonstrators or the security forces,” said Claire Hédon, the Defender of Rights, said in an interview with Le Monde on Tuesday.
“It is also important to say that the freedom to demonstrate is a fundamental principle of our rule of law. The first objective of policing is also this respect for the freedom to demonstrate with, as a corollary, the protection and safety of people.
“The testimonies and images that reach us show unacceptable situations.”
“The use of force can only be done if necessary, and in a proportionate manner. I am very worried about what I observe in the escalation of violence. And we will need a de-escalation. It is the responsibility of the state,” she added.
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