About 50 people were arrested between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning in Paris in riots that broke out again during protests against pension reform in France, international media reported.
According to the AFP news agency, this number of detainees was provided by the Paris police.
The French capital’s police chief, Laurent Núñez, told France Info radio today that officers do not carry out preventive arrests, responding to accusations by the left-wing opposition that they censure police officers for alleged intimidation practices.
On Tuesday afternoon, a demonstration in Praça da República called by French unions ended in vandalism and clashes with the police, who used tear gas against the protesters.
There were more demonstrations with at least 5,000 people in total in different cities of the country, such as Grenoble, Lille, Rennes and Nantes, according to official data.
The protests continue today with blockades of access to a refinery near Bordeaux, fuel depots in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, and the port of Marseille, in southeastern France.
There are also demonstrations of this type in Bayonne, in Lorient, in Vannes, in some cases with protesters preventing buses from entering or leaving.
These actions take place on the day that French President Emmanuel Macron plans to address the country on television at 1:00 p.m. (12:00 p.m. in Lisbon).
Some of Macron’s top advisers have already stated that the president has no intention of announcing a reshuffle of his government or an early call for legislative elections or the organization of a referendum on his social security reform.
The unions have called for Thursday the ninth day of mobilization, in just over two months, against the pension reform and hope to take hundreds of thousands of people to the streets to force Macron to suspend the reforms, once already formally approved the project. by decree last Thursday.
Macron’s government has already survived two motions of no confidence filed by the opposition in a short period of time.
The strikes, which have been going on for more than two weeks in sectors such as public transport, refineries, energy or garbage collection, are at risk of worsening on Thursday.
Today, due to the air traffic controllers’ strike, airlines had to cancel 20 percent of flights at Orly airport in Paris and Marseille.
Source: TSF
