President French, Emmanuel Macronsaid Wednesday that a deeply unpopular new law raising the age of retirement is necessary and will enter into force at the end of the year.
“Do you think I enjoy doing this reform? No”, Macron said in a rare television interview. “But there are not a hundred ways to balance the accounts (…) this reform is necessary.”
Until the government pushed through the pension bill without a vote, protests against a bill raising the retirement age by two years to 64 had gathered large peaceful crowds at rallies organized by the unions.
However, since the government’s decision to skip a vote in parliament last week, the protests have grown more violent, burning rubbish bins and barricades every night amid scuffles with police.
On Wednesday, protesters also blocked train stations in the southern cities of Nice and Toulouse.
These protests, together with strikes affecting oil depots, public transport and garbage collection, represent the most serious challenge to the authority of the centrist president since the revolt of the “yellow vests” from four years ago.
Macron said that what he called “extreme violence” it is not acceptable, although it respected the right to peaceful protests.
“We will make sure that as normal a life as possible can be resumed in the face of the few who block things“, he pointed.
Source: Reuters
Source: Gestion
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