Police fired tear gas and fought with violent black-clad anarchists in Paris on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of mainly peaceful protesters marched across France against President Emmanuel Macron's plan to raise the pension age.
Oh, they have them in France, too. Or: Reuters is just consistent in reporting that violent protesters are "mainly peaceful"... unless they're conservatives protesting for Trump, or almost anything else.
In a ninth day of nationwide protests, train and air travel was disrupted while teachers were among many professions to walk off the job, just days after the government pushed through legislation to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
Demonstrations in central Paris were generally peaceful, but smaller groups of "Black Bloc" anarchists smashed shop windows, demolished street furniture and ransacked a McDonalds restaurant. Clashes ensued as riot police moved in and drove back the anarchists with tear gas and stun grenades.
Small groups continued to clash with police in Paris into the evening, setting bins ablaze and playing cat-and-mouse with security forces.
Labour unions fear that protests could turn more violent if the government does not heed the growing popular anger over pension curbs.
That's not a "fear," that's a threat.
This is more clear in this threat:
"This is a response to the falsehoods expressed by the president and his incomprehensible stubbornness" Marylise Leon, deputy secretary general of the CFDT union, said.
"The responsibility of this explosive situation lies not with the unions but with the government."
That is, when we get violent, it's your fault, not ours.
...
"The street has a legitimacy in France. If Mr Macron can't remember this historic reality, I don't know what he is doing here," 42-year-old entertainment show worker Willy Mancel said at the Nantes rally.
I don't take any position on the policy action of increasing the retirement age.
I do take a position on the propaganda media's never-ending covering for the left's violence. Yes, a lot of normie conservatives, or just normie apolitical types, are angry about the increase in the retirement age, too; but it's the unions, always part of the leftist/communist coalition, threatening violence and actually committing violence.
In league with antifa, of course.
And Reuters is right there to cover for it.
I'm unable to confirm that this video shows what it claims to show: