The government’s recourse to 49.3 to pass the much-contested pension reform triggered punchy actions and demonstrations interspersed with a few incidents.
Several thousand people gathered in the evening of Friday March 17 in the evening of Place de la Concorde, in Paris, a few hundred meters from the Assembly. A brazier was blazing, lit by demonstrators, and the atmosphere became tense at nightfall, according to AFP journalists.
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Hundreds of people clashed with the police in small groups, throwing projectiles. Around 9:30 p.m. the place was completely evacuated. According to the police headquarters, 61 people were arrested there in the evening.
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In Strasbourg, it was on Place Kléber that 1,600 protesters gathered. “We too will go through with force”, chanted the demonstrators. The prefecture reported “degradations” in the city center, but no arrests.
In Lyon, demonstrators burst into a district town hall and lit a fire, but the police quickly extinguished it and arrested 36 people, according to the prefecture.
Also in Lyon, a few hundred young people set fire to garbage cans, overturned scooters, smashed billboards, threw firecrackers and tagged shop windows, chanting: ” Whose ? Whose ? It’s ours ! », according to an AFP journalist on the spot. The police responded by using tear gas.
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A thousand people marched in the center of Lille, and a procession of a few hundred demonstrators dispersed smoothly in Bordeaux.
Blocking actions and strikes
Blocking of the Paris ring road, Toulon or Bordeaux stations, strike at the Opéra de Lyon, demonstrations… opponents of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 have resumed the fight sporadically Friday, most often at the initiative of the CGT.
The activation Thursday of article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote, except motion of censure, was felt “like an insult. We have not been listened to for weeks, it has generated a lot of anger ”Philippe Melaine, SVT teacher at a public high school in Rennes, told AFP, where more than 2,000 people marched on Friday, including several hundred high school students.
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In Bordeaux, on the tracks or on the station platforms, waving their flags in the colors of the main unions, 200 people shouted: “Anger Rises”.
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“The 49.3 made everyone tense”Rémi Vinet, secretary general of the CGT Cheminots in Bordeaux, told AFP, predicting that the strike would “extend to other sectors”.
The CGT also announced the shutdown of the TotalEnergie refinery in Normandy this weekend.
Thursday, 310 people had been arrested in France, including 258 in Paris, announced the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin denouncing “burnt effigies” in Dijon and “targeted prefectures”.
The SNCF unions are calling for “keep on strike” renewable started on 7 and “to act massively” next Thursday.
