France

Fears of more violent clashes with police as demonstrations against Macron's unpopular pensions policy to carry on.

Berger said the prime minister must come up with a “very big move on pensions”. French opposition politicians on the left and right said France’s image and diplomacy had been damaged by the last-minute cancellation. we need to calm down,” Borne told AFP, saying the government would not drop the pension changes. “We have to find the right path … Pickets continued at petrol depots and waste incinerators, particularly surrounding Paris, where 8,000 tonnes of rubbish are still piling up in streets across half of the city after weeks of bin strikes. High school unions said that up to 200 schools were blockaded by pupils. The interior minister Gérald Darmanin said many police officers had been injured during the protests. [cancel the state visit](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/24/king-charles-visit-to-france-postponed-amid-protests) because of the strikes and demonstrations. Authorities in Paris and several cities are braced for clashes between police and protesters. [Le Parisien](https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/greve-du-28-mars-nombre-de-manifestants-radicalisation-ce-que-prevoient-les-renseignements-27-03-2023-UKHZ7AWVGRFFZLLYLAMRAFHU5Q.php), the note said “the topic of repression and police violence … [trade union-organised strike days ](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/25/women-france-pension-protests)has shifted to more impromptu protest gatherings over the past 10 days. [raising the age from 62 to 64](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/16/why-are-pensions-such-a-political-flashpoint-in-france-macron) is the biggest domestic crisis of Macron’s second term, with the strikes on Tuesday expected to affect refineries, bin collections, rail transport, air travel and schools.

Business sentiment declined only slightly in March despite the social tensions surrounding the pension reform. This confirms that activity in France is…

In addition, the full impact of monetary policy tightening is likely to start to be felt, weighing on household and business investment. The fact that economic sentiment is holding up is good news for economic growth at the beginning of the year, but it does not mean that economic activity is very dynamic in all sectors. The business climate confirms that activity in France at the beginning of the year is proving to be more resilient than might have been anticipated a few months ago.

Protesters entered an airport southwestern France on Tuesday as part of demonstrations against the nation's proposed pension reforms, which have sparked ...

The FSU – which streamed a live video from Tuesday’s protest inside the airport – is one of France’s main trade unions in its education sector, representing “162,000 members, of whom 88% are teachers,” according to its website. At least four groups can be identified in the footage based on their insignia, including a local Basquec trade union and two national associations – the CGT Departmental Union of Pyrénées-Atlantiques and the Fédération syndicale unitaire (FSU). The government has pressed on with the hugely unpopular bill because it says that relying on the working population to pay for a growing age group of retirees is no longer fit for purpose.

PARIS — (AP) — France's government unfurled ramped-up security measures and warnings that violent demonstrators intend "to destroy, to injure and to kill" ...

Their goals are to destabilize our republican institutions and bring blood and fire down on France," the minister said Monday in detailing the policing. The interior minister said more than 1,000 “radical" troublemakers, some from overseas, could latch on to marches in Paris and elsewhere. Their goals have nothing to do with the pension reform. Violence has since flared and thousands of tons of [stinking garbage](https://apnews.com/video/politics-france-government-macron-business-vulic-moncilo-14f36769fb764ad6b836efd73c2fb678) have piled up on Paris' streets as sanitation workers strike. "It must be seized.” Despite fresh union pleas hat the government pause its hotly contested push to raise France's legal retirement age from 62 to 64, Macron seemingly remained wedded to it.

Fresh strikes and protests hit France on Tuesday with a record number of police deployed, as President Emmanuel Macron remained defiant over a pensions ...

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 13,000 members of the security forces would be deployed on Tuesday - 5,500 of them in Paris alone. "But they should keep some trains running for students. The head of the French Catholic Bishops' Conference, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, said Tuesday violence accompanying protests was "an alarming symptom of the state of the social fabric" in France. On Tuesday, he also called for the appointment of a mediator between unions and the government saying this would be "a gesture in favour of cooling off, and finding a way out". "We need to continue to hold out a hand to the unions," a participant in the meeting quoted Macron as saying, although the president rejected any revision of the pensions law. The number, a record, was justified by "a major risk to public order".

The Republic of Ireland succumbed to an early second-half strike by Benjamin Pavard to give France three points in the first qualification match for Euro 2024.