457 people were detained and 441 members of the security forces were hurt during nationwide demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform on Thursday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
Speaking to CNews on Friday morning, Darmanin added that 903 fires had been started in Paris’ streets on what was by far the most violent protest day since the demonstrations started in January.
Darmanin continued, “There were many demonstrations and some of them turned violent, particularly in Paris.” He called the death toll “difficult” and praised the police for defending the more than a million protesters that marched throughout France.
Young men wearing hoods and facemasks were observed breaking windows and torching uncollected trash in the closing moments of the Paris march, which the police had warned would be targeted by anarchist organizations.
Darmanin, a right-wing hardliner in Macron’s centrist government, dismissed demonstrators’ calls to rescind the pension reform, which was controversially approved by parliament last week.
He declared, “I don’t think we should repeal this statute due to violence.” If so, there is no state. A democratic, social argument is acceptable, but a violent one is not.
In another incident on Thursday, fighting in the center of wine exportation in the southwest of France caused the entrance to Bordeaux city hall to catch fire.
The mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, said on Friday on RTL radio, “I have difficulty understanding and accepting this sort of vandalism.”
“Why would you attack all Bordeaux residents and our common building? I can only denounce it in the worst terms possible.”
British King Charles III is scheduled to visit the city in the southwest on Tuesday. Hurmic had been anticipating a visit to the municipal hall.
