In France, on Monday, on Labor Day, protests got out of hand in several cities. In Paris, Lyon, Toulouse and Nantes, among others, demonstrators clashed with the police and vandalism took place. The French used the special day to protest against the now largely approved pension reforms, with the increase of the retirement age from 62 to 64 years as the main cause of anger.
The largest protest took place in Paris. In the capital of France pelted black-clad demonstrators hit the police, including with stones. They also destroyed bus shelters and shop windows. An officer suffered burns when he was pelted with a Molotov cocktail and a journalist got injured while covering the protest. The police used tear gas on a large scale. In Nantes, protesters set cars on fire.
Trade unions had called on the French population to take to the streets “as never before”. The French responded to this in more than three hundred places. The police were prepared for disturbances with a deployment of about 12,000 agents – 5,000 of them in Paris alone. It was the thirteenth union-organized protest against the pension reforms since January.
Also read this report a French protest in March
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