PARIS — Masked youths clad in black torched cars, smashed storefronts and threw up roadblocks Tuesday, clashing with riot police across France as protests over raising the retirement age to 62 took a radical turn.
These Punks want something for nothing, and the French state can no longer afford to bankroll so many Arab immigrants on the French welfare rolls.
Hundreds of flights were canceled and desperate drivers searched for gas as oil refinery strikes and blockages emptied the pumps at nearly a third of the nation's gas stations.
A series of nationwide protests against the bill since early September have been largely peaceful. But Tuesday's clashes, notably just outside Paris and in the southeastern city of Lyon, revived memories of student unrest in 2006 that forced the government to abandon another highly unpopular labor bill.
Still, President Nicolas Sarkozy was unbending Tuesday, vowing to guarantee public order in the face of "troublemakers." The government announced a plan to pool gasoline stocks so that dry stations can be filled.
"There are people who want to work, the immense majority, and they cannot be deprived of gasoline," Sarkozy said.
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