Very high tension in Paris on the day of the general strike throughout France to protest against the pension reform wanted by President Emmanuel Macron. Rain of tear gas, clashes, detonations on the sidelines of the Paris procession. A group of black bloc composed of at least 500 individuals dressed in black stood at the corner of the Magenta Boulevard and Place de la République, in the heart of the capital, staging clashes and provocations with police officers forced to respond. On fire some bins, casseur threw stones at the windows.
Some TV cameras that were shooting them were targeted and damaged. The situation, even for the procession of thousands of people who are pressing from the Boulevard de Magenta, is now rather tense.
"Today France is closed" . Trains, subways, buses, public schools, hospitals, waste collection: millions of public and private sector employees fold their arms and almost 250 marches and demonstrations are organized throughout the country. A 'black Thursday', as the French media say.
In the country that works slowly, with so many activities in fits and starts or suspended, the Eiffel Tower has also closed its doors. In a statement, the company Sete, which manages the Iron Lady, announces that today the staff is not "large enough to open the monument in conditions of optimal safety and reception for the public". However, Sete states that the square under the tower remains accessible free of charge. It is ignored, however, if it will remain closed tomorrow. On the pension reform, one of the main promises, Macron plays the rest of his five-year term. Some fear a repetition of the major strikes of 1995, when the country was paralyzed for three weeks, until Christmas, with 2 million workers in the streets and a sad behind-the-front by the government, with subsequent resignation of the then premier Alain Juppé and dissolution of the Parliament. The day promises to be very heavy, starting with the transport front. From the first figures, the protest movement will have a strong following and the average percentage of train cancellations is 90%.
And Paris is also preparing for a weekend of heavy inconvenience on the metro and bus . The trade unions of RATP, the company that manages Parisian public transport, have indeed announced that the strike called for today against the pension reform of Emmanuel Macron will be extended "until Monday" for "almost all of the workers on strike". The mobilization, already very strong in this 'black Thursday' of transport, with practically paralyzed connections, will be "the same until Monday," said Thierry Babec, representative of Unsa, the first RATP union.