France: Pension protests, no-confidence motions after decree

Fresh protests erupted in Paris on Friday evening, a day after President Emmanuel Macron and his government passed acontentious pension reform by decree, without a vote in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. 

Several thousand demonstrators gathered in the capital's Place de la Concorde, close to the assembly building, and faced up to a line of riot police, with some chanting "Macron, Resign!"

Clashes between authorities and protesters erupted later in the evening. Reuters TV broadcast images of police using tear gas to deal with crowd disorder.

Earlier, traffic, garbage collection and university campuses in the city were disrupted, as unions threatened open-ended strikes in response to the pension decree.