French police fire tear gas during violent May Day pension protests

Paris, Lyon and other cities rocked by angry clashes

Police clashed with black-clad anarchists in Paris and other cities during protests against Emmanuel Macron’s increase in the retirement age, as workers joined Labour Day rallies across Europe.

In the French capital, police were pelted with projectiles, ride-sharing bicycles were torched and bus stops smashed up just as the union-led march got underway from the Place de la Republique.

Unrest also erupted in Lyon, where several vehicles were set ablaze and some business premises were trashed.

Mr Macron last month raised the retirement age by two years to 64 despite multi-sector strikes, in a move that drove his popularity down to near the record lows seen during the “gilets jaunes” crisis of 2018-19.

A protester dressed in Gallic attire stands in front of a police cordon on Monday (AFP/Getty)

The reform has crystallised discontent against a president perceived by many as aloof and indifferent to their daily hardships, and he has been met during walkabouts by heckling and pot-banging.

“The executive cannot govern without the support of its people,” Sophie Binet, leader of the hard-left CGT union, said ahead of the Paris protest, adding her union had not yet decided on talks with the government on other work-related matters.

Laurent Berger, head of the reform-minded CFDT trade union, said Mr Macron’s government had been deaf to the demands of one of the most powerful social movements in decades.

He dismissed suggestions that a rare alliance between the leading trade unions was being tested now that the pension bill had been signed into law.

Protesters hit with a water cannon in Paris (AFP/Getty)

“We must bring other proposals over salaries and working conditions to the table,” he told BFM TV.

In Paris, Extinction Rebellion activists threw paint over the glass-fronted facade of the Louis Vuitton Foundation and paving stones outside the Ritz Hotel.

Elsewhere in Europe, union-led protests were planned across Germany. In Italy, the three main unions held a rally in the southern city of Potenza protesting against a labour package approved by prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government.

In Turin, protesters marched with a puppet of Meloni holding up her arm in a fascist salute.

Police during clashes in Paris after tear gas was fired (AFP/Getty)

During a parade in Zurich, demonstrators threw water balloons at the emergency services, the windows of at least two banks were smashed and some properties were spray-painted, police said.

Mr Macron says the French reform is needed to help shore up one of the industrialised world’s most generous pension systems.

French pension payments as a share of pre-retirement earnings are comfortably higher than elsewhere and a French man typically spends longer in retirement than those in other OECD nations.

Protesters in Lyon after a fire was set (AFP/Getty)

Trade unions say the money can be found elsewhere.

Retired metalworker Michel Maingy said he felt the battle over pensions was lost. Even so, there were still fights to be won in negotiations over working conditions, he said.

“Little by little, we’ll get back on track. We need to keep our chins up,” he said ahead of the protest in Nantes.

Mr Macron’s government, which lacks a working majority in parliament, rammed the pension legislation through without a final vote due to a lack of cross-party support.

A hardening of the political opposition risks complicating the rest of his reform agenda, including an employment bill that would require those receiving the minimum welfare benefit to work or get training for 15-20 hours per week.

Reuters