Spontaneously, rallies were organized in the streets of many French cities on Thursday evening, after the outbreak of 49.3 by Elisabeth Borne to have the pension reform adopted. At first peaceful, they were subsequently marred by violence and degradation.
A 49.3 and disputes. Two hours after the announcement of the use of this tool by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne to pass the much-maligned pension reform, several spontaneous demonstrations were organized across the country on Thursday evening.
Violence near Concorde in Paris
In Paris, several thousand people gathered on the Place de la Concorde for a peaceful rally punctuated, later in the evening, with violence and degradation.
Around 8 p.m., the authorities evacuated the huge Parisian square due to a fire starting at the obelisk restoration site. The demonstration dispersed and numerous damages were then committed throughout the evening, with fires starting in the neighboring districts.
Garbage cans and several vehicles were set on fire and 217 people were arrested according to the prefecture.
“Several outbreaks of fire” were reported in the surrounding streets, including garbage cans or burned street furniture, confirmed the prefecture. The firefighters had to intervene several times in order to circumscribe the various outbreaks.
• Trash fires and Molotov cocktails in Nantes
The protest was not limited to the streets of Paris. In Nantes, around 3,500 people were gathered in the early evening, according to the police, and the atmosphere quickly deteriorated.
Demonstrators set fire to garbage cans and many piles of garbage not collected by the garbage collectors on strike, in the city center. Jets of Molotov cocktails, mortar fire aimed at the police and an assault by demonstrators could be observed.
The police used tear gas for more than an hour to try to disperse the procession. More than a dozen shop windows were damaged, according to a photographer.
“49.3, we don’t want it”, chanted the demonstrators, who also wrote tags like “Brûlons Matignon”, “anger is at its height”, or even “Democracy = cause always”.
• Ransacked shops in Marseille
In the streets of Marseille, several shops were ransacked in the wake of the demonstration organized after the announcement by the government.
After having smashed the window of a Caisse d’Epargne branch, on the Canebière, and sprayed paint on several facades of shops on this famous avenue, the demonstrators ransacked at least a dozen other shops towards the rue Saint- Ferréol, the main shopping street in Marseille.
In particular, they targeted other bank branches, such as those of BNP Paribas or LCL, telephony, electronic products (Boulanger) or clothing (Zara, Camper, Richelieu, Pimkie) shops.
These degradations were notably the work of groups of young people, sometimes masked, shouting “Fuck everything becomes vital”, “down with the State, the cops and the bosses”, “Fuck the bourgeoisie”, or even “we are going to fart everything”, “let’s burn everything”, “Marseille stand up, get up!”
On the Canebière, the demonstrators had also set fire to garbage cans or garbage containers, or improvised roadblocks with work barriers, before being dispersed by the police with tear gas.
• Fires and mortars in Rennes
In Rennes, “multiple signs were degraded in the city center and 26 fires were extinguished by the SDIS”, indicated in the evening the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine, specifying that “a group of 300 ultras , determined” continued “his abuses.” Eight people were arrested and taken into custody.
The socialist mayor of Rennes Nathalie Appéré spoke of “staggering” violence on Twitter.
“Our city is this evening the scene of staggering urban violence. I activated the municipal crisis unit at the start of the evening”, indicated the mayor, proof of the violence which shook the Breton capital and acts of vandalism, such as looting of a clothing store in a video circulating on social networks.
“Our city cannot be abandoned to the violence of the thugs,” she said again, recalling having called for police reinforcements.
Around 7 p.m., several hundred young people had gathered at Place Sainte-Anne in the historic center and had started to light fires. Security forces tried to extinguish them and used tear gas to disperse the protesters, noted an AFP journalist.
Extremely mobile, the demonstrators lit several fires, damaged street furniture, fired fireworks and attacked a hotel. “A manager of the Mama Shelter, a luxury hotel targeted by the ultras, reports 5 victims among his staff”, according to the prefecture.
“The windows of the town hall have been degraded,” said the prefecture. “People have been molested. City Hall has been targeted on numerous occasions,” added Nathalie Appéré. The prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine condemned “with the greatest firmness these intolerable acts”.
• The town hall of Lyon degraded
In the streets of the capital of Gaul, 1,500 people scattered in different violent groups gathered, according to figures communicated by the Rhône Prefecture to BFM Lyon.
Around 9:30 p.m., 200 to 300 mobile people were still in the streets, according to the authorities. A total of four people were arrested after the demonstrations, indicates the Rhône prefecture.
When one of these groups passed near theCity Hall, the windows of the central town hall were damaged. The police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.
