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French Pension Reform Protesters Storm Olympic Headquarters

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

PARIS (Worthy News) – French protesters angry about President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms stormed the Paris 2024 Olympic Games headquarters as part of Tuesday’s demonstrations and strikes disrupting France.

Organizers acknowledged the actions amounted to the last desperate effort to pressure the authorities into scrapping plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

But after months of massive protests that have failed to budge Macron, and with critical parts of the overhaul already enshrined in law, between 400,000 and 600,000 people were expected to join the protests.

Earlier this year, an estimated 1 million people participated in the rallies. “The game is about to end whether we like it or not,” said Laurent Berger, the leader of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, the largest union in France.

Some protesters have threatened to disrupt next summer’s Olympics if Macron does not back down to protect what the French view as their almost sacred right to stop working early.

Banners reading “No retirement, No Olympics” are visible in Paris, the capital.

Some 11,000 police were deployed on Tuesday, including 4,000 in Paris, to prevent protests from escalating, authorities said.

Fuel deliveries were blocked from leaving energy giant TotalEnergies’ Donges site, near Nantes in western France, where riot police clashed with black-clad protesters, reporters said.

Macron has argued that France’s pension system, based on payroll taxes, is financially unsustainable because retirees supported by active workers are living longer.

To balance the system, his government says people must work longer. The unions have proposed an alternative: “tax the wealthy more.”