After two nights of tension in the Place de la Concorde, in Paris, new clashes punctuated the demonstration against the pension reform which was held in the south of the capital this Saturday evening. The rally, launched by the CGT in the 13th arrondissement, which brought together more than 4,000 people, according to the police, including many young people, hardened in the evening when fires were started on the rails of the tram and the construction sites dismantled on the avenue d’Ivry.
Projectiles were also thrown at the security forces who responded with tear gas. On the course, barricades were set up, some caught fire. “Given the presence of many thugs, the organizer calls for dispersal,” said a police source around 8 p.m.
VIDEO. Pension reform: “The government is having fun setting the country on fire”
Among the few hundred who were still stationed at Place d’Italie after 9 p.m., a woman, in her thirties, who carried a large effigy of Emmanuel Macron more than two meters high, in fabric and cardboard: “The police hit my effigy with batons. But the forces of order must join us instead, as the guards had turned their coats under the Commune. We know they’re fed up too. At 9:30 p.m., according to an initial report, 76 people had been arrested at Place d’Italie, and 10 at Concorde.
“Macron get out! »
Already in the afternoon, calls to demonstrate at Place de la Concorde had multiplied on social networks, despite the ban issued by the Paris police headquarters. The important device made it possible to disperse the demonstrators who, for many, joined the procession place d’Italie. “After 49.3, the ban on demonstrations! It’s a shame, ” gets carried away by a protester. “Macron get out! gears a couple further. We are retired, but we come to demonstrate for our daughters. It is an unprecedented social regression after decades of progress. »
In Bordeaux (Gironde), the festive event also degenerated. Tear gas was launched by the police in the busy shopping street Sainte-Catherine after the start of fires in garbage cans. Tensions also marred the processions in Brest (Finistère) (6,000 demonstrators according to the police) and in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) (6,000 according to the police, 15,000 according to the CGT). As of 9 p.m. on Saturday evening, no other significant incidents were reported.
Elsewhere, rallies organized by local unions of trade unions were generally peaceful. Banners and slogans hammered the disagreements of the demonstrators against the 49.3 tabled by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, this Thursday. Examples in Caen (Calvados) (2,000 people according to the prefecture, 5,000 according to the unions), Saint-Étienne (1,200 according to the police, 3,000 according to the CGT), Roanne (Loire) (1,600 against 3,000 according to the CGT), or even in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) or Besançon (Doubs) (a few hundred).
VIDEO. Pension reform: a town hall in Lyon ransacked by demonstrators
Refineries soon to shut down
In the refineries too, the tension has gone up a notch. While so far the strikers had been content to block fuel shipments, the Normandy refinery (TotalEnergies), in Seine-Maritime, the largest in the country, began its shutdown on Friday evening.
According to CGT official Alexis Antonioli, this should take several days and not cause immediate fuel shortages at service stations. Others – that of PetroIneos in Lavéra (Bouches-du-Rhône) or that of Esso-ExxonMobil in Port-Jérôme-Gravenchon (Seine-Maritime) – could also be shut down at the start of the week.