About 200 demonstrators were detained during May Day demonstrations across France, including 53 in Paris. The French interior ministry was quoted by BFMTV as saying this.
Tens of thousands of people are taking part in the demonstrations in Paris but once the demonstration got underway, violent clashes between radicals and police broke out. Tear gas was used, demonstrators responded with firecrackers, paintballs and bottles and smashed windows of banks and other businesses.
Earlier, unions in France had called for May 1st to be a day of “unprecedented popular action against pension reform and for social justice”. The head of the biggest trade union, the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (CFDT) Laurent Berger said this year’s demonstrations would be “the largest in the last 30-40 years”. According to him, up to 1.5 million people may take part in them.
As reported by EADaily , on 14 April the Constitutional Council of France approved a key article of a draft law on pension reform that would gradually increase the retirement age in the country from 62 to 64 years by 2030. President Emmanuel Macron signed the law on the same day and the document was published in the official journal.
This triggered a predictable wave of outrage across France, with protests accompanied by clashes between demonstrators and police officers and looting.
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