France Sees New Pension Protests, Police Brace for Violence

With thousands marching, the Eiffel Tower shuttered, and police stepping up security despite government warnings that radical protestors meant "to ruin, to harm, and to kill," protests and strikes against unpopular pension reforms once more engulfed France on Tuesday.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described it as an unprecedented deployment of 13,000 cops, with over half of them focused in the French capital, in response to worries that violence may derail the big demonstrations.

A resolution to the months-long upheaval brought on by President Emmanuel Macron's reforms to France's retirement system seems inconceivable. Macron seems to be stuck on his controversial plan to raise France's legal retirement age from 62 to 64 despite new union requests that the government delay it.

Before, the French president utilised an unique constitutional authority to force the reform through lawmakers without giving them a chance to vote. His action this month fueled the protest movement even more. Since then, as sanitation workers have gone on strike, violence has erupted and piles of foul rubbish have built up on the streets of Paris.

The Eiffel Tower's website announced that strikers had closed down the world-famous tourist attraction. The Louvre Museum was similarly strike-bound on Monday.

"Everybody is getting madder," said Clément Saild, a train passenger at Paris' Gare de Lyon railway station, where tracks were temporarily invaded and blocked Tuesday by protesting workers.

He said said he supports the strikes despite their impact on transportation and other services.

"I am 26, and I wonder if I will ever retire," he said.

Another passenger, Helene Cogan, 70, said: "French people are stubborn and things are getting out of hand."

The protestors' wave Since January, unions have called for employees to strike and protesters to swarm the nation's streets ten times in opposition to Macron's retirement reforms, which are a top objective of his second term as president. On Tuesday, this request was repeated.

His administration claims that the greater life expectancy and lower birth rates in many wealthier countries would force France's pension system to become bankrupt if reform is not implemented. Opponents of Macron claim that greater pension cash might be obtained without delaying worker retirement.

On Tuesday morning, peaceful demonstrations began in many locations, drawing sizable audiences. But, in the western city of Nantes, police reported being attacked with items and used tear gas to disperse protesters. They were also prepared for unrest elsewhere.

More than 1,000 "extreme" troublemakers, some from abroad, might join marches in Paris and other cities, according to the interior minister.

"They come to destroy, to injure and to kill police officers and gendarmes. Their goals have nothing to do with the pension reform. Their goals are to destabilize our republican institutions and bring blood and fire down on France," the minister said Monday in detailing the policing.

Several demonstrators, human rights activists, and Macron's political rivals claim that police personnel overreacted when dealing with the crowd. Several allegations of misbehaviour by police officers are being looked into by a police oversight agency.

The protesting railway employees marched in front of a placard that read: "The cops torture. We are not forgiving!"

A 36-year-old protester named Lucie Henry claimed that by bypassing parliament to enact his agenda, Macron "had set everyone on fire."

The government's actions, particularly the aggression by the police, she claimed, "give gasoline to the fire."

Macron's adversaries are pleading with him to control his fury by yielding. Tuesday, union president Laurent Berger pleaded for mediation and a halt to the retirement reform's implementation.

He stated that what the trade unions were suggesting was an effort to defuse tensions, which is something he also wanted to achieve. That needs to be taken.

Unions and the government could communicate without mediation, according to government spokesman Olivier Veran.

King Charles III's scheduled state visit this week was postponed indefinitely by Macron in response to the most recent round of demonstrations.

Veran insisted, however, that France remains a welcoming place for all non-royal visitors.

"Life goes on," he said.