PARIS-France faced another day of protests Sunday against a bitterly contested pension reform rammed through by President Emmanuel Macron’s government, a day before crucial no-confidence votes in parliament.
After weeks of peaceful strikes and marches against raising the official retirement age from 62 to 64, police on Saturday closed the Place de la Concorde opposite parliament for demonstrations following two successive nights of clashes.
Some individual lawmakers were targeted, with Eric Ciotti -- chief of the conservative Republicans party expected not to back the no-confidence motions -- finding early Sunday that his constituency office had been pelted with rocks overnight.
“The killers who did this want to put pressure on my vote on Monday,” Ciotti wrote on Twitter, posting pictures showing smashed windows and threatening graffiti. More than 80 people were arrested at a 4,000-strong Paris demonstration Saturday where some set rubbish bins on fire, destroyed bus stops and erected improvised barricades.
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And 15 more were held in Lyon after police said “groups of violent individuals” triggered clashes. Other demonstrations in cities around France passed off peacefully, with hundreds turning out in the Mediterranean port city Marseille.