A new wave of unrest over a pension reform engulfed Paris and other French cities Thursday, with enraged protesters occupying the building of the US-based investment firm BlackRock and setting fire to a popular restaurant favored by President Emmanuel Macron.
Dozens of trade union members streamed into BlackRock’s Paris offices in the historical Centorial building, where they set off firecrackers and chanted slogans directed at the company’s private pension fund.
“The government wants to throw away pensions, it wants to force people to fund their own retirement with private pension funds, but what we know is that only the rich will be able to benefit from such a setup,” said protester Françoise Onic, a school teacher.
The temporary occupation of BlackRock came on the 11th day of nationwide strikes and demonstrations decrying Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 years in an apparent bid to keep France’s pension system from going bust.
https://nypost.com/2023/04/06/french-protesters-occupy-blackrock-firm-torch-restaurant/
