A mobilization in decline, and tensions that continue. The CGT announced more than 2 million people in the streets of the country this Tuesday, March 28, to protest against the government’s pension reform. A figure lower than that of last Thursday, like that of the Ministry of the Interior, which counts 740,000 protesters for this tenth day of mobilization.
In addition, clashes with the police, scuffles and other degradation marred the marches against the pension reform in several cities, including Paris, where the parade was calmer than during the previous mobilization. On Tuesday night, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced 201 arrests in France on Tuesday.
In the capital, clashes pitted the police against certain activists dressed in black and with their faces masked, towards the end of the route of the demonstration that linked Place de la République with Place de la Nation. Previously, a Leclerc business had been looted, bin lights on and street furniture degraded by these groups of hooded protesters, whose behavior contrasts with the calm and festive mass of the rest of the procession participants.
At least 70 arrests in Paris
The police loaded and fired tear gas grenades to separate “the block”, allow “the intervention of the firefighters” and “facilitate the progress of the procession,” said the Paris police headquarters.
Other incidents occurred in the Place de la Nation during the dispersal of the demonstration around 7:00 p.m., throwing stones and bottles at the police, who in turn fired numerous tear gas canisters. At 8:30 p.m., calm had returned to the square, where only a few dozen protesters remained. By midafternoon, the police headquarters reported 70 arrests.
At least five people were treated by the emergency services, three injured were treated by “street medics” (volunteer rescuers). According to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, 13,000 police officers and gendarmes -including 5,500 in Paris- mobilized for the tenth day of protest against the pension reform, a device that he described as “unprecedented”.
Quieter parades in Rennes and Nantes
In western France, where clashes had been particularly violent on Thursday, violence and degradation broke out again in Nantes and Rennes despite two parades generally considered quieter.
In the Loire-Atlantique prefecture, a bank branch and a car were set on fire and the administrative court was attacked. At least five protesters were injured in Nantes. The prefecture announced 49 arrests. The city’s mayor, Johanna Rolland, deplored “unacceptable vandalism”.
In Rennes, extensive damage was done in the city center where an insurance agency was looted. The police used a water cannon. Six people were arrested according to the prefecture, which counted 13,600 protesters against 25,000 from the unions.
Incidents observed in Toulouse, Lyon or Lille
In Toulouse, the demonstration was also peppered with incidents. The police used the water cannon against about fifty protesters, dressed in black, with masks and protective glasses.
Same scenario in Lyon where the shops were vandalized and where the prefecture decided to use water cannons. 15 people were arrested.
In Lille, where at least 25,000 people demonstrated according to the unions compared to 8,000 in the prefecture, it was also at the end of the course that incidents broke out between the police and certain demonstrators. The former used two water cannons and fired tear gas before charging to disperse the Lille protesters, following the arrival of the procession. Some protesters responded by firing bottles at police, who made at least one arrest. The demonstration had so far passed generally peacefully.
“Serious violence” in Charleville-Mézières
Jets of projectiles, use of tear gas by the police, damage has also been recorded in Bordeaux, Calais, Dijon or Caen. The prefecture of the Ardennes denounced “serious violence” on the sidelines of the demonstration that brought together 4,000 people in Charleville-Mezieresdeploring the launching of projectiles at police, including “acid bottles”, “spread mortar fire, and announcing 18 arrests”.
In Strasbourg, where 15,000 people demonstrated according to the unions against 6,500 for the prefecture, a few hundred young protesters played cat and mouse with the police, particularly in the Krutenau student district. Bank windows were smashed, as were at least a dozen bus shelters.
In Besançon, the clashes pitted some 150 protesters against the police. The prefecture paid “tribute to the union leaders who intervened to prevent” the demonstrators from setting fire to the gate of the prefecture. In Nancy, police fired tear gas at protesters on Place Stanislas, the city’s main esplanade.
Source: BFM TV
