While nanopresident Emmanuel Macron is in China carefully minding Ukraine’s business, back home in France the social upheaval continues to spiral out of control. This Thursday (April 6th), the 11th round of protests against the Pension Reform saw roads, ports and refineries blocked, and multiple confrontations between the protesters and the security forces.
France announces massive police mobilization with 13,000 officers will be deployed to counter nationwide protests, the interior minister has announced
At the same time, the protesters’ mobilization is ongoing in many major cities throughout the country. As much as 299 public buildings and 132 parliamentary offices have been targeted, with protesters going as far as walling up some buildings, or piling manure in the entrances.
BlackRock Becomes a Symbol for Anticapitalist Fervor in France
Suspicions that the Wall Street giant sought to influence President Macron’s overhaul of the nation’s pensions system have made the company a target of protesters.
In Paris, garbage hasn’t been collected in weeks. The city is filthy, and rats are everywhere. But, now, the rat catchers have joined the protests, and threw the vermin at the charming Hotel de Ville, Paris city Hall.
La Rotonde, Macron’s favorite brasserie, was set on fire, while French and Belgian firefighters, together, protested in the L’Arc du Triomphe.
Protesters laid siege and stormed BlackRock headquarters in Paris – the financial manager with 10 trillion in assets is seen by many as the hidden influence behind the deeply unpopular Pension reform that will elevate the age for retirement from 60 to 62 years old.
“Although the [pension] system has been criticized for being too generous, the incidence of poverty among older people in France is one of the lowest in the world — and far lower than in the United States.”https://t.co/4yT6PNo6zu
— Recon (@rangoon78rpm) April 6, 2023
“Chinese President Xi Jinping showed no sign of changing his position over Russia’s war on Ukraine after talks Thursday with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
[…] ‘China is willing to jointly appeal with France to the international community to remain rational and calm,’ was as far as the Chinese leader would go during a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
‘Peace talks should be resumed as soon as possible, taking into account the reasonable security concerns of all sides with reference to the U.N. Charter … seeking political resolution and constructing a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework,’ he added, sitting next to Macron.”
LET IT ROCK
— Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) April 6, 2023
Predictably, Le Petit Roi was dismissed as a pesky nuisance by Xi in Beijing.
And zero manners: he spoke twice as long as his host.
Meanwhile, in Paris, at least 400,000 people are still protesting.
And railway workers took over BlackRock's HQ.
The French president also commited a series of faux pas, like making a speech that was twice as long asd his host, which prompted Xi himself to look impatient and annoyed as Macron spoke non-stop.
1789: Bastille.
— Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) April 6, 2023
2023: BlackRock.https://t.co/PNXSQgQEWI
Those about to rock against Le Petit Roi, we salute you. pic.twitter.com/oMDFdvolje
— Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) April 6, 2023
France announces massive police mobilization
13,000 officers will be deployed to counter nationwide protests, the interior minister has announced
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has ordered 13,000 police officers into the streets of France’s major cities as protests against the government’s controversial pension reforms continue. Darmanin said that he is expecting “radical activists” from abroad to instigate violence at the demonstrations.
Darmanin announced the deployment on Monday night, adding that 5,000 of the mobilized officers would be stationed in Paris ahead of marches on Tuesday.
“Our services anticipate that there will be significant disruption to public order,” he said, warning that “more than 1,000 radical activists, some arriving from abroad, may join the protests in Paris, Nantes or Rennes.”
Darmanin said that these “radical activists” are mostly left-wingers and anarchists who are known to police. “Their goals are to destabilize our republican institutions and bring blood and fire down on France,” he claimed.
France has been hit with constant protests and riots since President Emmanuel Macron bypassed parliament earlier this month to pass a bill raising the retirement age for most workers from 62 to 64. More than a million demonstrators took to the streets last Thursday, and hundreds were arrested in Paris after clashing with police and lighting fires on the streets of the French capital.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the demonstrations in Paris remained mostly peaceful. However, masked rioters in Nantes set cars on fire and hurled rocks at police, who responded with tear gas. Protesters in Paris and Marseille blocked railway lines, while a group of demonstrators set off a smoke bomb in Biarritz Airport, triggering alarms and leading to an evacuation.
The Council of Europe has condemned the government for using excessive force against protesters, while France’s National Consultative Commission on Human Rights issued a report last week accusing police of arresting hundreds of demonstrators without cause.
Macron is insistent on keeping his reforms in place. “I have no regrets pushing for this necessary reform,” he said in a televised interview last week, adding that he accepts “unpopularity” as a result. Macron has long argued that France’s pension system will go bankrupt unless the retirement age is raised, while his opponents have called on the president to make up for the shortfall by increasing taxes on the wealthy instead.
Nearly half of the officers will be deployed in Paris, with the government expecting violence from “radical activists”
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