The french police is waiting for more violent protesters to join marches against planned pension reform, the Paris police chief said Tuesday, hours before a new round of demonstrations and strikes in all the country. The intended device is 13,000 agents deployed throughout the day.
Millions of people have demonstrated, mostly peacefully, and have joined the strike since mid-January to express their opposition to the plans of the President Emmanuel Macron to make the majority work two more years until they are 64 years old. But public frustration has evolved into a anti-Macron sentiment wider.
The protests have intensified since the government used special constitutional powers to bypass Parliament in a final vote on the pension bill almost two weeks ago, causing scenes of chaos reminiscent of riots by supporters of the yellow vests during Macron’s first term as president.
“Very attentive”
Laurent Nunez, President of the Paris Police Prefecture, told France Inter radio that security agencies believed that more people with violent intent might join the protests and that the police had to be prepared. “We are talking about individuals who are often being watched by the intelligence services (…) and we are very attentive to their presence,” Núñez said.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday that the authorities had recently observed a trend towards a increased violence directed against the State and that provided for a “very serious risk to public order” at the rallies on Tuesday.
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“A total of 13,000 police officers They will be deployed during the protests throughout the day, more than ever,” Darmanin said. Laurent Berger, leader of France’s largest union, the CFDT, said the violence was a distraction. “What outrages me is that this violence, that I condemn… eclipse the formidable mobilization that has been overwhelmingly peaceful,” Berger declared.
Berger said that attempts to strike up conversations between the union leaders and the Government had failed and that Macron had to “pause” in raising the retirement age and show “a gesture of appeasement” to calm things down. Berger suggested appointing mediators to help the dialogue between the government and the unions in the coming months.