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Paris Protests Against Pension Reform Turning Into Fierce Unrest - Videos

PARIS (Sputnik) - Demonstrators protesting the planned pension reform in Paris have started setting trash cans on fire, breaking traffic lights and blowing up firecrackers, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Saturday.
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Black block radicals are also smashing bank windows and cash machines. Some rioters are throwing glass bottles into the police, while chanting "Down with capitalism" and "Macron, we will fight till the end!".
The protest against the pension reform was organized by 11 youth organizations and the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI) party led by Jean-Luc Melenchon. The demonstration began at the Place de la Bastille in the French capital at 13:00 GMT earlier in the day, with the protesters heading towards the Place de la Nation.
The participants are carrying banners of the LFI, the left-wing New Ecological and Social People's Union alliance of political parties, and the far-left New Anticapitalist Party.
Earlier in January, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne unveiled a draft of the controversial pension reform that the government plans to adopt in 2023. According to the draft, the French authorities will gradually raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1, 2023. By 2030, the retirement age will reach 64 years.
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Protesters Gather in Paris to Demonstrate Against Pension Reform
France's leading trade unions announced nationwide strikes against the pension reform from January 19. Over 200 demonstrations were held across the country on Thursday, with the largest protests taking place in Paris, Marseilles, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Nantes. The demonstration was joined by nearly 1.12 million people, with 80,000 of them reportedly in Paris alone.
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