The mobilization against the pension reform, which was considered by the members of the Argentine parliament on Monday, was tarnished by extensive incidents in Buenos Aires between the police and rioters.
The majority of the tens of thousands of protesters, who responded to the call of the opposition unions and political parties, demonstrated peacefully. But several hundred young people hurled stones, bottles and even fireworks at police in front of parliament.
The episodes lasted four hours. police riot units made use rubber projectiles and tear gas, and struggled to repel the most persistent protesters.
There were many injuries on both sides, French Agency journalists found out. Authorities reported dozens of arrests and detentions.
As night fell, police continued to line up around parliament, where the reform debate, which was scheduled to last about eight hours, continued.
In many neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, residents came out of windows knocking on pots in protest of the reform bill.
The violent incidents caused extensive damage. In Congress Square and the streets around it, no one saw stones, debris, projectile shell casings used by police, and even construction site curtains that were removed and set on fire.
On Thursday, the gendarmerie quelled riots following a previous mobilization against the reform, which prompted parliament to postpone Monday's debate on a bill by the government of center-right President Mauricio Macri.
Hugo Reinoso, a 74-year-old retiree, said he hoped the reform would not pass. Like his wife, he receives the minimum pension of 7.200 pesos (350 euros) and fears that with inflation remaining steadily high - over 20% year-on-year over the last decade - his purchasing power will fall further.
Jorge Lopez, 72, who receives a much larger pension of 20.000 pesos (1.000 euros), has denounced "neoliberal politics that affect the most vulnerable". "And if you work until the age of 70, there are fewer jobs for young people," he added.
"This bill will put millions of retirees at risk. The whole system is changing ", judged from her side a 34-year-old teacher, Laura Rivas. "We will have to work for more years before we retire, and then the pensions we will receive will be meager, so it affects us as employees," she added.
The reform envisages a change in the way pensions are adjusted, linking them to the official index, as well as raising the retirement age from 65 to 70 for men and from 60 to 63 for women.
Agust Αn Rossi, a former minister when former President Cristina Fernandes de Kirsner was in power, denounced the "blackmail" of the Macri government, which he says is urging Peronist lawmakers to vote in favor of reform if they want to reform. .
The head of Macri's government, Marcos Penia, instead defended the reform and argued that retirees would not lose purchasing power.
The government, which is looking for areas for cuts in order to reduce the deficit to 3,2% of GDP in 2018 (from the 4,2% forecast this year) and also wants to reduce inflation to 8-12% in 2018 from about 20% this year, expects to save an amount of almost five billion a year with the reform. The bill has already been approved by the Senate and only the approval of the lower house remained.
