France Strikes: Nationwide Protests Turn Violent

France strikes: Nationwide strikes opposing a proposed pension reform bill turned violent as French youth clashed with police in cities across France.
France Strikes: Nationwide Protests Turn Violent
High school students walk past a damaged car as they demonstrate against France's government pensions reform on October 19,in Lyon. The latest mass protests against pensions reform in France drew 480,000 demonstrators into the streets by midday Monday. (Philippe Desmazes/Getty Images )
10/19/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/105692273.jpg" alt="High school students walk past a damaged car as they demonstrate against France's government pensions reform on October 19,in Lyon. The latest mass protests against pensions reform in France drew 480,000 demonstrators into the streets by midday Monday.  (Philippe Desmazes/Getty Images )" title="High school students walk past a damaged car as they demonstrate against France's government pensions reform on October 19,in Lyon. The latest mass protests against pensions reform in France drew 480,000 demonstrators into the streets by midday Monday.  (Philippe Desmazes/Getty Images )" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1813314"/></a>
High school students walk past a damaged car as they demonstrate against France's government pensions reform on October 19,in Lyon. The latest mass protests against pensions reform in France drew 480,000 demonstrators into the streets by midday Monday.  (Philippe Desmazes/Getty Images )
Nationwide strikes opposing a proposed pension reform bill turned violent as French youth clashed with police in cities across France, AP reported.

Youths in the mostly-immigrant, underclass Paris suburb of Nanterre battled police using stones against tear gas. In the eastern part of Paris young people attacked police and set fires.

Student organization Confédération Étudiante called for all students to join the demonstrations, reported the Wall Street Journal.

Students and young people in France have repeatedly demonstrated against austerity reform since 2005, when riots swept through Nanterre for several days, prompting the government to shelve reform plans.

In northeast France, in the city of Grand-Quevilly, police removed protesters blockading a fuel depot.

Tuesday marked the sixth day of nationwide strikes against President Nicholas Sarkozy’s proposed pension reform bill, which the president said is needed to ease economic pressures. The bill, which is past the National Assembly and on its way to the Senate, would raise minimum retirement benefit age from 60 to 62, if both houses of Parliament pass it.

Retirement age in France has been 60 since 1981 when President Francois Mitterand lowered it from 65.

The strikes have cut air and rail traffic in half. According to CNN, fuel shortages forced at least 1,000 gas stations to close. Garbage is piled in the streets of Marseilles.