Protests continued strong on day 12 in France-- hundreds of thousands of protestors including trade unions and activists carried out nationwide demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron's plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. France's Constitutional Council will vote on the bill on Friday. Macron's government pushed for the bill using a special constitutional power, without a parliament vote.
Protesters in Paris forced their way into the headquarters of LVMH, a luxury giant that owns brands like Louis Vuitton and Moet, on the day shares in the company jumped to a record high.
Protesters also took to the Constitutional Council, France’s equivalent of the US supreme court, but were stopped by the police. There's a ban on protests in the area from Thursday evening till Saturday morning. Multiple flare-ups took place as the protests turned violent-- it has been garnering more anger against Macron.
Violence also broke out at Paris’ Place de la Bastille, where riot police clashed with angry protestors.
“At least a thousand radical individuals present at the forefront of the demonstration area tried on several occasions to commit acts of violence along the route and to hinder the smooth progress of the demonstration,” a spokesman for the Paris police told CNN. 47 people were arrested in Paris and about ten police officials were injured.
The Constitutional Council is a discreet body, which rules on the constitutionality of bills while stepping around the fray of mainstream politics. It's been pushed to the limelight thanks to the controversy around the pension reform. The Council is one of France's three highest legal authorities. As it isn't a political body, it would focus on technical questions of constitutional interpretation.
The council has been asked to rule on two things: if the pension reform and the process through which the legislation was passed is in line with the constitution, and if a referendum can be held on the retirement age, RFI reported.