French protesters block key highway, oil refineries after Macron’s pension move

French protesters have blocked a key highway around the capital and ramped up industrial action at oil refineries in a new demonstration of anger after President Emmanuel Macron’s government adopted a controversial pension reform plan without a parliamentary vote.

Local media said hundreds of protesters blocked traffic on the ring road outside Paris on Friday morning, just hours after mass overnight protests and hundreds of arrests nationwide over Macron’s push through contentious pension reform.

The media also reported on damage including a burnt-out public bicycle, shattered shop window, and scorched car in Paris.

In the energy sector on Friday, workers were to halt production at a large refinery by this weekend or Monday at the latest, CGT union representative Eric Sellini said, adding that the strikers continued to deliver less fuel than normal from several other sites

Workers had already been on a rolling strike at the northern site TotalEnergies de Normandie, but halting production would escalate the industrial action.

The Macron administration invoked on Thursday afternoon a controversial constitutional power to impose the pension overhaul by decree, using a special procedure to push its pension reform without a vote in the French parliament.

The move sparked violent protests across the country, with police firing tear gas at some 7,000 protesters on the Place de la Concorde in Paris and arresting 310 people around France, including 258 in the capital.

Anger boils as France adopts pension plan without vote

French police intervene to clear demonstrators from a central Paris square where thousands have gather in front of parliament to protest President Emmanuel Macron

Soumaya Gentet, a 51-year-old CGT union member from supermarket chain Monoprix, told reporters that she was incensed and would continue to protest until the bill was revoked.

"They're not taking into account what the people want," Gentet added.

"Macron doesn't give a fig about the people," said his colleague, Lamia Kerrouzi. "He doesn't understand the language of the people. It needs to be repealed."

Through his proposed reforms, Macron is pushing to raise the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64, saying it is vital if the country is to avoid the collapse of the state pension system.

Raising the retirement age by two years and extending the pay-in period would yield an additional 17.7 billion euros ($19.18 billion) in annual pension contributions, allowing the system to break even by 2027, according to Labor Ministry estimates.

Opinion polls show that two-thirds of the French people oppose the reform and support a protest movement organized by trade unions, who have unified behind their opposition and have warned they will continue their mobilization.

The opposition warns the reform will penalize low wage-earners and will force people who started manual jobs at lower ages to work longer. Trains, schools, public services, and ports have been affected by strikes over the last six weeks.

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