Protesters marchingagainst the French government's planned pension reform clashed with thepolice in Paris on Saturday as police fired tear gas to disperse some groups ofdemonstrators.
French trade unionshave spearheaded nationwide strikes since early December in an outcry overPresident Emmanuel Macron's pensions overhaul, disrupting schools,railways and roads, while lending support to regular protests.
On Saturday"yellow vests" – an anti-government movement that sprung up a yearago as a backlash against the high cost of living – joined a rally of severalthousand people against the pensions shake-up.
Police used teargas against protesters close to tourists hotspots like the Centre Pompidoumuseum of modern art, where some demonstrators had tried to erect barricadesand set fire to them, and smashed up a bus stop.
Clashes broke outat other points of the demonstration too, although the protest was dying downby the late afternoon.
Jerome Rodrigues, aprominent figure in the "yellow vest" movement, was hurt in the eyealthough it was not immediately clear how he had sustained the injury.Rodrigues was blinded in the same eye earlier this year during anotherdemonstration.
France's transportnetwork remained disrupted across the country and in Paris on the last weekendof the year, and rail and metro workers have so far insisted they will keeppressure on Macron to abandon his overhaul.
"We're readyto hold for quite a while," said Laurent Djebali, a representative of themetro branch of the Unsa union as he joined the march.
Macron has toutedhis reform as conducive to a fairer system that will incentivise workers tostay in the labour force until 64 instead of 62 and balance the pension budget,while eliminating many special regimes.
