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Bordeaux City Hall Set on Fire Amid French Retirement Age Rise Protests

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Five people have been arrested by French police after the doors to the city hall of Bordeaux were set on fire on Thursday evening amid ongoing country-wide protests against increasing the state pension age.

The fire was lit in the evening, with the first person arrested, a 25-year-old, caught throwing objects at the fire in order to try and make it spread around 8:30 p.m.

In total, five people were arrested at the scene and are currently in the custody of the zonal directorate of the judicial police for the south-west, which is investigating the detainees for acts of arson, Sud Ouest reports.

Investigators say that two of the suspects in the incident are homeless people in their twenties. Two others are said to be aged 16 and 19.

It remains unclear whether any of the suspects were the ones who started the fire, or if they simply tried to make it spread by throwing objects onto it.

The five arrests came after four others were apprehended by police in the city following the end of a demonstration against the recent pension age increase pushed through by the government of President Emmanuel Macron, which used an article of the constitution to pass the legislation without a vote in the National Assembly.

Among those arrested earlier in the evening in Bordeaux was a 50-year-old man who allegedly set fire to a barricade, a 43-year-old homeless man who threw objects at police, a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old who also threw objects at officials, and a 23-year-old woman who attacked police and tried to spread fires.

Bordeaux was not the only city to see rioting and urban violence on Thursday evening, however. In Nantes, significant damage was caused to the local administrative court, which was also ransacked by demonstrators.

As many as 80,000 people marched on the streets of Nantes on Thursday to protest the retirement age being increased, with the protest described as the largest mobilisation since the demonstrations against Macron’s scheme began several weeks prior.

Johanna Rolland, Mayor of Nantes, spoke out and condemned the violence, saying: “People who commit these unjustifiable acts penalize the message peacefully carried by thousands of people for two months.”

Despite the protests, Macron has stood firm on his decision to force through the controversial pension changes, claiming that he had no regrets despite days of rioting and protests.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

Paris Burns: Hundreds Arrested as Rioters Set Trash Fires, Clash with Cops After Macron Tries to Pass Pension Reform Without a Vote

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Hundreds of people were arrested in Paris on Thursday evening as spontaneous protests and riots sprung up after President Emmanuel Macron’s government invoked a constitutional loophole to pass its controversial legislation to raise the retirement age without a vote in the National Assembly.

As of midnight Paris time, some 217 people were arrested in the French capital after the city erupted in rage after the National Assembly was bypassed by the globalist Macron government which used article 49.3 of the constitution to pass through its controversial plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64-years-old by the year 2030 in order to keep the programme from going under.

The ‘city of light’ was set ablaze by radicals who set fires across Paris, enabled, in part by the fact that tonnes of trash littered the streets as a result of a garbage workers strike also in response to the pension reform plans, Le Parisien reported.

Rioters also set fire to barricades and clashed with police, who deployed water cannons and tear gas canisters in response.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also asked for police to give extra protection to senators and MPs amid the growing anger among the populace. This was said to be a precaution.

While a national trade-union-organised protest against the government is planned for next Thursday, leftist activists are reportedly planning on staging blockades of key infrastructure throughout France in the meantime. Previously, radicals blocked off the entrances to ports and energy refineries in order to put pressure on the government.

According to the BFMTV broadcaster, riots were also witnessed in the city of Nantes, where some 3,500 people flooded out onto the streets. Again, protesters set fire to mounds of garbage that were piled up as a result of the strike. Radicals were also witnessed throwing Molotov cocktails and makeshift missiles at police officers.

Over a dozen storefronts were also damaged in the chaos. The same could be said in Marseille, where rioters smashed windows and painted the fronts of shops with graffiti, with banks and high-end clothing stores being the primary targets.

According to the broadcaster, radicals shouted: “fuck the bourgeoisie”, “we’re going to blow it all up”, “let’s burn everything”, and “Marseille stand up, get up!”

Meanwhile, in Lyon, hundreds also gathered in the city centre to protest the government, where they reportedly smashed the windows of the City Hall building before police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Despite the government bypassing the National Assembly on Thursday, opponents of the retirement age rise have not been completely defeated yet. On Friday, Marine Le Pen, the leader of the populist right-wing National Rally (RN) is expected to table a motion of no confidence, which is likely to receive the support of the far-left in parliament.

Should the measure be successful, it would likely force Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, the second-highest-ranking official in the government, to resign, and possibly force President Macron to dissolve parliament.

If the no-confidence vote fails, there is still the option of appealing for a national referendum to quash the legislation, meaning that the fight over the issue to raise the retirement age is likely to continue to rage for the foreseeable future.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka