The damage caused since January to urban infrastructure during demonstrations against pension reform was estimated at 1.6 million euros.
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“The damage from the riots during the 12 demonstrations against pension reform cost the city budget 1.6 million euros,” he said in a local media report.
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Vice Mayor of Paris Emmanuel Gregoire said that this amount only takes into account the damage caused by radical citizens to urban facilities, but does not take into account the cost of repairing destruction in the offices of private enterprises.
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Thus, the city authorities spent 536 thousand euros on cleaning the streets after the protests, for which they were forced to call cleaners after hours, paying for their overtime work. Another 106,000 euros was spent on repairing flowerbeds and fences, bus stops and bank windows. But the most expensive objects that the protesters destroyed were illuminated billboards and press kiosks. 836 thousand euros were allocated for their repair.
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The total damage from the protests against pension reform exceeds that after the debacles perpetrated by the supporters of the yellow vest movement in 2018. They cost the city budget 1.4 million euros.
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The current protests began more or less peacefully, but after French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born passed the bill without a vote in parliament, using article 49.3 of the constitution, they have become more aggressive, the mayor’s office said.
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On May 1, more than 300 demonstrations will take place in France, it is expected that from 500 to 650 thousand people will take part in them, of which from 80 to 100 thousand will be in the French capital. Paris expects from 1.5 to 3 thousand supporters of the “yellow vests” movement, as well as 1-2 thousand radical elements.
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On April 14, France’s Constitutional Council approved a key article of a pension reform bill that calls for a gradual increase in the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. On the same day, French President Emmanuel Macron signed the law, the document was published in the official journal. The pension reform triggered a wave of protests across France, which were accompanied by clashes between demonstrators and police officers, pogroms, riots and detentions.
