05:23 PM
Saturday, January 21, 2023
agencies
France is witnessing violent confrontations between the French police and the protesters in Paris, according to Al Arabiya announced in an urgent news to it, in light of the presence of new protests against the controversial reform of the pension system, after the left-wing France Party and a number of youth organizations announced the organization of protest marches.
Since the current pension system cannot be funded in the long term due to the aging of the population, the French government wants to gradually increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.
In addition, the number of years an employee needs to pay into the system in order to receive a full pension will be increased faster, many individual schemes offering privileges to certain occupational groups will be abolished, while the minimum monthly pension will be increased to around 1,200 euros ( $1,303) and the current pension age is 62, but retirement actually begins much later on average, since employees who haven’t pushed money into the system long enough to receive a full pension are forced to work longer.
On Thursday, more than 1.1 million people across France rejected government pension plans in a massive strike and mass protests. Reports indicated that 80,000 people protested in Paris alone.
The return of the yellow vests
The yellow vests reappeared in the streets of France, with renewed demonstrations.
Demonstrations and protest marches continued throughout France, and escalated in the capital, Paris, since last Thursday, and unions and employees of companies and various sectors are participating in strikes, in protest against the retirement system.
Transport services between French cities were largely disrupted by the strikes. Many schools and many government offices were also closed.
Protest marches in a number of suburbs of Paris witnessed remarkable participation. Crowds of the major unions marched from the Place de la Republique in Paris.
The yellow vest movement is a popular protest movement that emerged in May 2018, and then increased in popularity and strength by November of the same year, when it was able to ignite demonstrations in France, which in turn quickly spread to Wallonia and some parts of Belgium.
The yellow vest movement first came out to denounce soaring fuel prices and the cost of living, then extended its demands to drop the government’s tax reforms, which the movement sees as draining the working and middle classes while empowering the wealthy.
From the beginning, the movement called for a reduction in the value of taxes on fuel and an increase in the minimum wage. Later, matters developed to the point of calling for the resignation of French President Emmanuel Macron.
