“Tonight, the country is on fire.” The movement against the pension reform seems to have broken out on Thursday night, shortly after Elisabeth Borne’s announcement in the National Assembly of the use of article 49.3 of the Constitution to approve the text, without a vote. A bill still ultra rejected by the French population, according to all opinion studies.
Barely two hours after the use of the 49.3, several groups of people began to converge on the call of the Solidaires union towards the Plaza de la Concordia, denouncing “the coup by the Executive”.
Several hundred protesters joined them: more than 6,000 people were present at around 7 p.m., BFMTV learned from a police source.
However, authorities evacuated the plaza due to a fire that started at the obelisk restoration site. The demonstration dispersed in the afternoon and many degradations were committed, with fire exits: the demonstrators set fire to waste that had not been collected, due to the strike of the garbage collectors. At least 217 people were arrested, according to the prefecture.
Damage in various cities
Incidents also broke out in other cities, in particular in Rennes, where the prefecture mentioned eight arrests and as many police custody at the end of the night, after multiple degradations and “26 fires extinguished”.
In Nantes, where some 3,000 people gathered in the early afternoon, according to police, the atmosphere also deteriorated rapidly, reports AFP. In Marseille in La Canebière, where hooded youths broke the glass of a bank branch and an advertising panel while others set fire to garbage cans shouting “down with the State, the police and the businessmen.”
Several hundred demonstrators were also present in Amiens, Lille, Grenoble, Dijon, Le Mans, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Toulouse, Bordeaux and even Besançon.
“Everywhere people express their anger”
“Tonight the country is on fire. Everywhere spontaneous rallies are organized. Everywhere people express their anger. Everywhere the squares fill up. People rise up,” greets LFI MP Thomas Portes on Twitter . “People rebel because they are 49.3 too many,” analyzes ecologist Sandrine Rousseau on BFMTV.
The violence was condemned by a large part of the political class, including the left by Fabien Roussel (PCF). The socialist mayor of Rennes, Nathalie Appéré, spoke on social networks of “shocking” violence.
“What is happening in Rennes is unacceptable. This urban violence must stop,” added Laurence Maillart (Renaissance).
The inter-union, for the moment, has not reacted to the violence committed tonight in the country. After the announcement of 49.3, he called for a ninth day of mobilization on March 23 and for actions in the regions this weekend.
Darmanin gathers the prefects on Friday morning
But in some cities and some sectors, opponents of the reform will mobilize on Friday morning. In particular, it is planned to block the industrial zone of Le Havre, starting at 4 am
The use of 49.3 by the Government to approve the pension reform is “a spit in the face of the workers”, justified Olivier Mateu, secretary of the CGT 13 Departmental Union, considering that only the workers “will sign the end of the party.” him by obtaining the repeal of the reform.
A sign that the tension has risen a bit this Thursday evening: the patron saint of Renaissance deputies, Aurore Bergé, asked the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, to “mobilize the State services” for the “protection of the parliamentarians” of the majority.
“I refuse to see deputies from my group, or any deputy from the Nation, fearful of their individual expression, fearful of voting freely because they would fear reprisals,” Aurore Bergé wrote in a letter to the minister.
According to information from Agence France Presse, Gérald Darmanin must meet the prefects this Friday morning.
Source: BFM TV
