Paris CNN —
More than a million people took to the streets across France on Thursday, with protests turning violent in some areas as protesters expressed anger at proposed pension reforms.
Clashes between groups of protesters and police erupted after workers carried out a nationwide strike that flared up in Paris and regional capitals throughout Thursday.
French police said around 1,000 people acted “violently”, setting fires, firing smoke bombs and damaging property. In the southwestern city of Bordeaux, protesters set fire to the entrance to the town hall during ongoing clashes with police, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.
Police fired tear gas at crowds in north-west Lorient, while video from Rennes shows authorities using water cannon to disperse protesters.
At least 80 people were arrested and 123 police officers injured during the nationwide protests in France on Thursday, said French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
Thursday marked the ninth day of strikes in the country and the first coordinated action since French President Emmanuel Macron’s government brought a bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote through parliament last week.
French unions have called new strikes and protests for next Tuesday, the day Britain’s King will visit Charles Bordeaux during his first foreign visit as monarch.
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The mostly peaceful day of strikes, which saw 119,000 people demonstrate in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry, disrupted transport networks, oil refineries and schools.
It also affected air travel, with 30% of flights at Paris Orly Airport affected.
According to a government spokesman, unionized workers blocked a major oil refinery in Normandy and another in Fos-sur-Mer in the south of the country. And earlier in the day, about 70 protesters blocked Terminal 1 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, an airport spokesman told CNN.
Before the strike, French authorities had mobilized 12,000 police officers across the country, including 5,000 in Paris.
The government’s plan to raise the retirement age by two years for most workers was met with opposition from many.
Despite protests, Macron’s government has not backed down. It rammed the law through France’s National Assembly last week using a constitutional clause allowing the government to bypass a vote.
The country’s generous pension system and early retirement have been a proud feature since they were introduced after World War II. Under the new law, the retirement age for most workers will be 64, still one of the lowest in the industrialized world.
When the proposal was unveiled in January, the government said the reforms were necessary to prevent a projected €13.5 billion ($14.7 billion) hole in the pension system from opening in 2030.
Thursday’s demonstrations come after Macron defended the reforms in an interview on French television on Wednesday and confirmed they would be implemented by the end of the year.
“It is in the greater interest of the country. Between opinion polls and the national interest, I chose the national interest,” Macron said.
But government critics and critics of Macron were outraged.
“[Macron] poured fuel on the fire,” Philippe Martinez, general secretary of the CGT, France’s largest trade union, told French broadcaster LCI on Thursday.
France’s eight major unions announced another nationwide protest for March 28 and called for local disruption over the weekend.
“Responsibility for this explosive situation does not lie with the unions but with the government,” they said in a televised statement.