Strikes continued at French refineries on Saturday, and more protests erupted across the country amid anger over government pressure to raise the retirement age without a parliamentary vote.
With unrest mounting along with rubbish piling up on the streets of Paris following sanitation workers joined the strikes, President Emmanuel Macron faces the most serious challenge to his authority since the so-called yellow vest protests in December 2018.
A spokesman for Total Energies said that regarding 37 percent of operational staff at the company’s refineries and depots in France went on strike on Saturday.
Meanwhile strikes continued to rotate in the railway sector.
Riot police clashed with protesters on Friday evening in Paris, where a demonstration took place in the Place de la Concorde near the Parliament building, resulting in the arrest of 61 people.
This led the Paris region, on Saturday, to ban gatherings on the Place de la Concorde and the nearby Champs-Elysees.
But another rally is scheduled for later in the day in the Place de l’Etalia in southern Paris.
Elsewhere in the French capital, a group of students and activists briefly stormed the Forum de l’ Mall while holding banners calling for a general strike, according to footage on social media.
Macron’s government wants to raise the retirement age from two years to 64, and says this is necessary to ensure that the system does not go bankrupt.
