Clashes as hundreds of thousands protest again across France

In France, pension protests are alive as both demonstrators and the government impatiently wait for a key court ruling on the validity of the reform plan.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators once again took to the streets across the country on Thursday for yet another day of strikes against President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform, as talks between the government and powerful unions have ended in a stalemate.

Scuffles broke out in several cities, including in Paris where some protesters briefly set fire to the awning of a restaurant prized by the president.

"We're in the middle of a social crisis, a democratic crisis. It's a problem... that needs to be solved by the president," said Laurent Berger, head of the centrist CFDT union.

Protesters were brandishing placards or waving union flags from Nantes in the west to the southern coastal cities of Montpellier and Marseille.

"We haven't given up yet and we don't intend to," said a 50-year-old public servant as he marched in Marseille.

In a 20-minute action in central Paris on Thursday, striking railway workers stormed the former headquarters of the Credit Lyonnais bank, a famed building that now houses companies, including the BlackRock investment firm, setting off smoke flares and whistling.

Through his proposed reforms, Macron is pushing to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, saying it is vital if the country is to avoid the collapse of the state pension system.

Raising the retirement age by two years and extending the pay-in period would yield an additional 17.7 billion euros ($19.18 billion) in annual pension contributions, allowing the system to break even by 2027, according to Labor Ministry estimates.

French govt. rejects unions’ demand to suspend, rethink pension bill; clashes erupt in protest rallies

The French government has rejected a request by trade unions to rethink Macron’s controversial pension reform bill.

Back in March 15, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne infuriated demonstrators as she invoked a controversial executive power to ram the bill through parliament without a vote, turning protests violent.

A day earlier, eight main labor unions of France said a meeting with the prime minister on was a "failure" after she refused to discuss going back on the minimum retirement age of 64.

Macron, who is on a formal trip to China, will remain there for the rest of the week as one of his aides denied the allegation of a "democratic crisis", saying the pension change was in the president's manifesto during his re-election campaign in 2022.

"You can't speak of a democratic crisis when the bill has been enacted, explained to the public and the government is taking responsibility for it," said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The developments came as both sides are awaiting an April 14 verdict by France's Constitutional Council on the validity of the pension reform bill put forward by Macron, whose popularity has been eroded by the standoff.

The council has the power to partly or fully strike out the legislation. If it gives its green light, Macron will be able to sign the changes into law.

Separately on Thursday, protesters in Paris targeted Left Bank brasserie, a restaurant favored by Macron, and Café de la Rotonde, also liked by the president, as they hurled bottles and paint at police.

La Rotonde is well known in France for hosting a much-condemned celebratory dinner for Macron when he led the first round of the 2017 presidential election.

In the western city of Rennes, protesters chanted "Strike, blockade, Macron walk away!" while police shot tear gas canisters at demonstrators who hurled projectiles at them and torched bins.

"There is no other solution than withdrawing the reform," the new leader of the hardline CGT union, Sophie Binet, said at the start of the Paris rally.

Police expect that between 600,000 and 800,000 people took to the streets nationwide on Thursday.

Since January, protesters in have been staging rallies against the controversial bill. A record number of people, more than 1.2 million, had marched on March 7.

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