Protesters flood the streets in Paris tonight.
While nanopresident Emmanuel Macron is in China carefully minding Ukraine’s business, back home in France the social upheaval continues to spiral out of control.
In this Thursday (April 6th), the 11th round of protests against the Pension Reform saw roads, ports and refineries blocked, and multiple confrontations between the protesters and the security forces.
Mobilization is ongoing in many major cities throughout the country. As much as 299 public buildings and 132 parliamentary offices have been targeted, with protesters going as far as walling up some buildings, or piling manure in the entrances.
In Paris, garbage hasn’t been collected in weeks. The city is filthy, and rats are everywhere. But, now, the rat catchers have joined the protests, and threw the vermin at the charming Hotel de Ville, Paris city Hall.
La Rotonde, Macron’s favorite brasserie, was set on fire, while French and Belgian firefighters, together, protested in the L’Arc du Triomphe.
Protesters laid siege and stormed BlackRock headquarters in Paris – the financial manager with 10 trillion in assets is seen by many as the hidden influence behind the deeply unpopular Pension reform that will elevate the age for retirement from 60 to 62 years old.
Meanwhile, in Beijing, Macron says he is counting on China to ‘bring Russia back to its senses’. But it’s bem already reported that he has failed to move Xi Jinping over Russia’s war on Ukraine, be it about the Western concerns that Beijing will deliver weapons to Russia, or about Putin’s decision to position nuclear missiles in Belarus.
“Chinese President Xi Jinping showed no sign of changing his position over Russia’s war on Ukraine after talks Thursday with French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
[…] ‘China is willing to jointly appeal with France to the international community to remain rational and calm,’ was as far as the Chinese leader would go during a press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
‘Peace talks should be resumed as soon as possible, taking into account the reasonable security concerns of all sides with reference to the U.N. Charter … seeking political resolution and constructing a balanced, effective and sustainable European security framework,’ he added, sitting next to Macron.”
The French president also commited a series of faux pas, like making a speech that was twice as long asd his host, which prompted Xi himself to look impatient and annoyed as Macron spoke non-stop.
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