Barricades, fires from garbage cans and bus shelters, throwing projectiles: the Place d’Italie district in Paris was the scene of clashes with the police on Saturday evening and dozens of arrests, on the sidelines of a demonstration denouncing the use of 49.3 to pass the pension reform.
According to a police source, 81 people were arrested in and around Place d’Italie, where calm had returned around 10:30 p.m.
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This is the third evening of tension in the capital, since the announcement Thursday of the recourse by Elisabeth Borne to article 49 of the Constitution which allows the adoption of a text without a vote, except motion of censure.
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Tensions moved from the 8th to the 13th arrondissement, because gatherings in Place de la Concorde and on the Champs-Elysées had been banned on Saturday by the police headquarters. “Due to the serious risk of disturbances to public order and security (…) any gathering on the public thoroughfare at Place de la Concorde and its surroundings as well as in the sector of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is forbidden “the police headquarters told AFP at the start of the afternoon.
Finally, tensions arose in the Place d’Italie district where a procession of several thousand people, at the call of the CGT Ile-de-France, – « 4000 » according to the police – was walking towards the lively Butte-aux-Cailles district.
Garbage can fires were lit, the windows of billboards and bus shelters targeted, construction barriers used to block streets, noted an AFP journalist.
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Charges
Around 8 p.m., the police intervened, in particular the Motorized Violent Action Repression Brigades (BRAV-M), and used tear gas, according to AFP-TV on the spot. The police made charges.
Dispatched to put out a fire in Place d’Italie, the firefighters were prevented from doing so by groups of young people and the police were “intervened to push the disruptors”said a police source.
In front of a fire, a young person took a picture with the sign “live yes, survive no”. In the mess, people were shouting “Macron resignation”or “If you think of Macron you will never have money”.
Third night
The two previous evenings, the demonstrations in the Place de la Concorde had been punctuated by incidents. By nightfall, hundreds of people had clashed with the police in small groups, throwing projectiles.
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Saturday afternoon, the Place de la Concorde – located very close to the National Assembly – had been placed under the surveillance of hundreds of police officers, and water cannons positioned in particular at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées. The police carried out numerous searches of passers-by and identity checks by asking static people to circulate.
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Ten people were arrested on the Place de la Concorde, according to a police source.
Thursday, 10,000 people had gathered on the Place de la Concorde, according to the Minister of the Interior, and 258 people had been arrested. On Friday, when 4,000 people gathered there, 61 people were arrested, according to the police headquarters.
