Still high tension in France on the pension reform: yesterday the project became law without the vote of Parliament, while clashes with demonstrators have been going on fire for days, setting fire to the capital: this morning 200 demonstrators poured - at the invitation of the trade union CGT - on the ring road blocking traffic, the demonstrators had gathered at Porte de Clignancourt, before heading in procession to Porte de la Chapelle, and forced motorists to drive at the pass. After a night of clashes with bins set on fire, and the police firing tear gas.

An evolving situation, monitored by a wide array of law enforcement agencies.

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Paris, demonstration against the pension decree

Macron's hard line continues, having resorted to article 49, paragraph 3, which allows the adoption of the project without a vote. The oppositions have tabled motions of no confidence, this is the political chronicle of yesterday, but outside Parliament, the mobilization continues and intensifies. Only yesterday, spontaneous protests in dozens of cities with street clashes and 120 arrests in Paris.

Yesterday - at the news of the government's decision, spontaneous demonstrations had filled the squares of dozens of French cities. In Paris the largest protest, with thousands of people who had moved through the streets of the center trying to get to Place de la Concorde, where the seat of the National Assembly, the Parliament French, is located. The police deployed in riot gear tried to block the marches and violent clashes ensued: on the one hand barricades, throwing objects and burning bins, on the other tear gas and water cannons.

The night in Paris, transformed into urban guerrilla warfare, with a toll at the end of at least 120 arrests carried out by the police. While always in the capital French, where tons of waste have accumulated for days now, the garbage collectors show no sign of suspending their strike. To the request of the prefect to proceed with the precept of at least a part of the workers, the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo yesterday replied no. Explaining that the only solution to solve the problem is "social dialogue" by the government on pension reform.


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Macron decided, confidence on pension reform, 16 03 2023


The challenge is to ensure a future for our pension system. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had defended the reform that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64, against which the massive national mobilization is underway. "I know that it is an important effort for the French to work for another two years - he acknowledged - but to let believe that everything can be paid with debts, this is not serious".

Opposition censure
The opposition had announced motions of censure in Parliament. "It is an observation of total failure for Emmanuel Macron. It is his reform. We will make sure to censor the government," said Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right Rassemblement National movement in the chamber. The leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, denounced the "whims" of President Macron: "When a president does not have a majority in the country, he does not have a majority in the National Assembly, he must withdraw his project. The Elysée is not a park to accommodate the whims of the president."


Also yesterday, during the debate in the hall, the deputies of the New People's Ecological and Social Union of Jean-Luc Melenchon, left, sang the national anthem, the Marseillaise, in the hall.