Over 1 million people have stormed the streets of France to protest against President Emmanuel Macron.
This is as the French President faced mounting pressure on Friday after violent demonstrations left more than 400 security forces injured and the centre of major cities shrouded in tear gas and smoke.
AFP reported that more than 450 people were arrested Thursday during the most violent day of protests since the start of the year against Macron’s bid to raise the retirement age to 64.
The French presidency announced Friday that King Charles III’s visit next week had been postponed after unions declared another day of strikes and protests on Tuesday, during what would have been the British monarch’s trip.
“Given the announcement yesterday of another national day of protests against pension reform on Tuesday March 28, the visit of Charles III, initially scheduled from 26-28 March, has been postponed,” it said.
The decision was “in order to be able to welcome His Majesty King III in conditions which reflect our friendly relations,” it added.
“There were a lot of demonstrations and some of them turned violent, notably in Paris,” Interior Minister Darmanin told the CNews channel while giving figures for the number of arrests and injured.
More than 900 fires were lit around the capital on Thursday, he said, with radical anarchist groups blamed for setting uncollected rubbish ablaze and smashing shop windows, leading to frequent clashes with riot police.
In southwestern Bordeaux, protesters set fire to the entrance to city hall, briefly raising fears for the whole building until firefighters arrived to extinguish it.
“Why would you make a target of our communal building, of all people of Bordeaux? I can only condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, told RTL radio on Friday.
More than a million people marched nationwide on Thursday, with the protest movement reinvigorated by Macron’s tactics and statements over the last week.
The protest was caused by legislation to change the retirement age — which Macron pushed through parliament without a vote last week.
