SAINTE-SOLINE: French police battled with protestors Saturday as they tried to block southwest reservoir building.
After days of violent protests worldwide over President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, King Charles III of the UK cancelled a visit to Sainte-Soline in western France.
The pension reform protest movement has become Macron’s second-biggest term’s internal crisis, with police and protestors clashing daily in Paris and other cities.
Many protestors and security officers injured in Sainte-Soline fighting to oppose agricultural reservoir building.
According to local officials, 6,000 people marched late morning, but organisers estimated 25,000.
“While the country rises up to defend pensions, we will concurrently stand up to safeguard water,” stated “Bassines non merci” organisers (“No to reservoirs, thank you”).
AFP correspondents reported intense battles between police and hardline militants around the building site.
‘Completely inexcusable’
Protesters threw projectiles and improvised devices, prompting tear gas and water cannon.
Moreover, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reported 24 security force injuries, one serious. Seven demonstrators were injured, one badly. Helicopters transported both badly wounded people.
“This explosion of violence is utterly unforgivable,” Darmanin told Paris reporters, accusing “extreme left and ultra-left” forces.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne denounced a “intolerable spiral of violence” at the event.
Police arrested 11 people after seizing petanque balls, meat knives, and explosives.
The water reservoir building skirmishes have exacerbated the government’s already difficult predicament.
Macron’s chagrin at cancelling Charles’ first state visit overseas as monarch was a sign of the situation’s gravity.
Protests have slowed since Thursday night’s heaviest violence.
The government is preparing for another day of strikes and protests on Tuesday.
Charles must now reschedule his second full day of visit. Instead, his first royal trip will be to Germany.
France has shocked the world. “Chaos prevails in France,” the Times of London said atop a debris pile.
Macron was accused by the left of removing a fancy watch during a television interview Wednesday to avoid more damage to his reputation.
‘I won’t quit’
This week, Macron used an unpopular executive prerogative to force the retirement age increase from 62 to 64 through parliament without a vote.
Waste collectors’ strike has also littered the metropolis.
While, The Council of Europe warned that intermittent violence in protests “cannot justify excessive use of force” in dispersing them.
Macron insisted Wednesday that the revisions must “come into action by the end of the year.”
Macron’s “inflexibility” was disturbing “his own troops” in the ruling party, Le Monde reported.
While, In a sign of the tense environment, Macron’s parliament faction leader Aurore Berge tweeted a handwritten note threatening her 4-month-old infant with physical violence, drawing support from across the political spectrum.
Four years after the “Yellow Vest” protests, Borne is under pressure to resolve the situation.
Moreover, Borne told a Saturday conference, “I will not give up building compromises.”
“I’ll keep acting. I’m here to negotiate and implement changes for our nation and the French “she stated.
