Paris Police Chief Didier Lallement has banned anti-government protesters from the Champs-Elysées avenue in Paris to prevent an outbreak of violence, as unions gear up for mass protests on Tuesday against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform plan. M Lallement has also banned protesters from gathering near the presidential palace, the prime minister’s official residence, the national assembly, Paris police headquarters and Notre-Dame cathedral. He announced the ban on Friday after similar protests earlier this month were marred by chaos and looting.
Shops, bars and restaurants located along the protest route in Paris will have to stay closed, M Lallement added, citing a tense social backdrop to the ongoing transport strikes and protests.
Business owners have been urged to clear terraces, counter-terraces and displays and remove all furniture, equipment and commercial fittings that could be used by rioters as projectiles or weapons.
French retailers, restaurants and hoteliers have for their part warned that their crunch Christmas season could be derailed if the unrest drags on for much longer.
Tuesday’s rallies – the third day of mass protest action in under two weeks – are expected to attract tens of thousands of people from a range of professions, including transport workers, teachers, police, lawyers and hospital staff.
At least 800,000 people protested against the pension reform on December 5; though only 339,000 took part in the second day of mass demonstrations last Tuesday.
Unions are hoping for a repeat of 1995 when they forced the government to drop its pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail strikes and street protests just before Christmas.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government, however, is determined to see the pension reform through to the end.
Defying union anger, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said last week France would replace an unwieldy and indebted system made up of 42 separate plans with a universal, points-based system giving every pensioner the same rights for each euro contributed.
M Philippe said the new system would be fairer and simpler and help plug a chronic deficit.
But, he particularly angered the unions by proposing a reduced payout for people who retire at the legal age of 62 instead of a new, so-called “pivot age” of 64.
The strongest opposition to the reform has come from workers with special benefit plans, including rail employees, dockers and Paris Opera singers who can retire on a full pension nearly a decade earlier than the average worker.
But, while the government has called on unions to end the strike that has paralysed transport services, saying the French would not forgive them for ruining their Christmas plans, a poll on Sunday showed that 54 percent either support the strikers or feel sympathetic towards their cause.
The poll, conducted by Ifop for Le Journal du Dimanche weekly, found that only 30 percent of those interviewed opposed the strike outright.
Buoyed by the favourable polls, transport workers have pledged not to budge unless the government scraps the reforms.
• The Ifop poll of 1,020 people aged 18 and over was carried out online between December 12-13.