Bordeaux City Hall Set Ablaze, 900 Fires Lit in Paris as France Sees Most Violent Protests Against Pension Bill
Last Updated: March 24, 2023, 15:58 IST
![Smoke rises in the sky as protesters take part in a demonstration on a national action day, a week after the government pushed a pensions reform through parliament without a vote, using the article 49.3 of the constitution, in Bordeaux, southwestern France. (AFP) Smoke rises in the sky as protesters take part in a demonstration on a national action day, a week after the government pushed a pensions reform through parliament without a vote, using the article 49.3 of the constitution, in Bordeaux, southwestern France. (AFP)](https://images.news18.com/ibnlive/uploads/2021/07/1627283897_news18_logo-1200x800.jpg?impolicy=website&width=510&height=356)
Smoke rises in the sky as protesters take part in a demonstration on a national action day, a week after the government pushed a pensions reform through parliament without a vote, using the article 49.3 of the constitution, in Bordeaux, southwestern France. (AFP)
In Paris, union leaders claimed that a record 800,000 people took part in marches through the city to demand that the government drop the proposal
The protest against Emmanuel Macron’s pension legislation gathered momentum on Thursday as 3.5 million people turned out across the country to demonstrate against the pension age being raised from 62 to 64.
A total of 457 people were arrested and 441 security forces injured during by far the most violent day of protests since they began in January, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said, according to AFP.
In Paris, union leaders claimed that a record 800,000 people took part in marches through the city to demand that the government drop the proposal.
The crowd in Paris marched from Place de la Bastille, a memorial to revolutionary France, to the city’s historic opera house in the centre of the capital.
However, the protest was marred by violence and vandalism as 903 fires lit in the streets of Paris.
Among the crowd of tens of thousands of mostly young people, protesters said Macron’s defiance and abrasive ruling style had motivated them to hit the streets.
Similar scenes were reported in other cities around the country, including Rennes, Nantes and Bordeaux.
In the south-western city of Bordeaux, the front door of the city hall was set on fire by protestors.
“I have difficulty in understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism,” the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, told RTL radio on Friday.
“Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
British King Charles III is set to visit the southwestern city next Tuesday, and had been expected to visit the city hall and meet with Hurmic.
The Macrons were due to host the royal couple at a state banquet before they head southwest to Bordeaux.
Police had warned that anarchist groups were expected to infiltrate the Paris march and young men wearing hoods and facemasks were seen smashing windows and setting fire to uncollected rubbish in the latter stages of the demonstration.
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