PROTESTERS hit the streets of Paris and other French cities today as angry opponents blasted president Emmanuel Macron’s decision to force a Bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 through parliament without a vote.

Opposition parties began the process on Friday for a no-confidence vote on the government led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. 

The vote looks likely to take place early next week.

Mr Macron ordered Ms Borne on Thursday to make use of a special constitutional power to push the highly unpopular pension Bill through without a vote in the National Assembly, France’s lower house.

The move infuriated opposition lawmakers and sparked protests on Thursday at the Place de la Concorde, which faces the National Assembly building. 

As night fell, police officers charged the demonstrators in waves to clear the square. Small groups then moved through nearby streets in the chic Champs-Elysees neighbourhood, setting street fires.

Similar scenes repeated themselves in numerous other cities, from Rennes and Nantes in eastern France to Lyon and the southern port city of Marseille, where shop windows and bank fronts were smashed, according to French media.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told radio station RTL today that 310 people were arrested overnight. 

Most of the arrests, 258, were made in Paris, according to Mr Darmanin.

The eight main trade union federations called for a new day of “strong mobilisation” against the plans next Thursday, March 23.

They described the plans as “brutal, unjust and unjustified for the world of workers.”

Mr Macron has made the proposed pension changes the key priority of his second term, arguing that reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit. 

The senate adopted the Bill earlier on Thursday, but Mr Macron did not believe that he had the votes to win in the assembly.

If the expected no-confidence motion fails, the pension Bill would be adopted. If it passes, it would also spell the end of Mr Macron’s reform plan and force the government to resign, a first since 1962.

Communist Party general secretary Fabien Roussel said that his party had a no-confidence motion ready to be submitted next week.

He said that as soon as the government submitted the Bill to the constitutional council, “we will ask for the suspension of the pension reform for nine months, the time to collect the 4.7 million signatories” for a national referendum.