At least 120 people were arrested in Paris on Thursday night during spontaneous demonstrations against France’s pension reform, approved without a vote by the National Assembly.
Police intervened late this Thursday afternoon in Paris, not far from Parliament, on the Place de la Concorde (Place de la Concorde, in French), where thousands of demonstrators gathered to protest the pension reform. according to AFP journalists.
By 9 p.m. (8 p.m. in Lisbon), 120 people had been arrested, mainly for causing damage, Paris police told AFP.
According to this police force, the officers took action, namely with water cannons, after an attempt to destroy the place of the Obelisk, in the center of the square.
These police interventions caused large movements of people in the square.
Their attacks and the use of tear gas drove protesters away from the bridge leading to the National Assembly and pushed people back across the square.
At night several hundred people were still standing on the square, where the fire brigade intervened to extinguish several fires, namely in planks and in an excavator.
Garbage cans were also set on fire in nearby streets, police said.
The French government this Thursday resorted to Article 49.3 of the French Constitution, which states that a law can be passed without going through the National Assembly (lower house of parliament), to pass the law reforming the pension system .
One of the most controversial articles of this new law is the increase of the retirement age to 64 or 43 years of reductions, but also the end of the existing special regimes for employees in transport, energy or even the Bank of France, as well as the adoption of a special contract to promote the employment of people over 60 years old.
The far right, the right and the entire left wing of France’s National Assembly this Thursday called for the government to resign following the forced adoption of pension reform, promising to table three motions of censure in the next 24 hours.
After this decision by the French government, the future of the Prime Minister, whose main task was to negotiate this reform and secure a majority, is now in doubt.
Even if the censure motions fail to pass, Elisabeth Borne could leave the government, paving the way for a new executive leader.
The French Prime Minister stressed on Thursday that her future in government will depend on the motions of censure announced by the opposition against her executive.
The union fighting against pension reform in France has already called “meetings” for this weekend and a ninth day of strikes and demonstrations for March 23.
Source: DN
