Boos, crestfallen faces, consternation, anger… On Friday, indignation greeted the decision of the Constitutional Council, which validated most of the unpopular pension reform, during rallies throughout France. In Rennes, a police station was set on fire by the demonstrators.
According to our information, the police station, located rue de Penhoët, was empty at the time of the events. The fire was quickly extinguished after the intervention of a police water cannon, but it still caused damage: “It burned well, the interior is devastated”, told us a policeman.
“The damage and attacks this evening in Rennes, against a police station and the Couvent des Jacobins, by thugs determined to fight it out are unacceptable,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Twitter.
“It’s a declaration of war”
In Rennes, several hundred people had also gathered in the city center. “It’s a declaration of war,” reacted Fabrice Le Restif, secretary of the Ille-et-Vilaine FO departmental union. “We were spat in the mouth, we are not going to let it go,” he added. Same anger in Caen, where some 600 people gathered in front of the prefecture.
“We are continuing the mobilization with even more determination and we are calling on youth, retirees and workers to harden the movement in the coming days and to generalize the strike from May 1,” Allan Bertu, responsible for the strike, told AFP. departmental CGT. In Marseilles, around 200 people gathered in front of the prefecture, many of them carrying union flags. “There I think everyone is a little revolted, disillusioned, disgusted because there we sit on democracy in fact”, reacted Marion, 35 years old.
“The Death of the Fifth Republic”
In Paris, the decision of the Constitutional Council, which fell shortly before 6 p.m., was greeted by boos from the demonstrators. Some 4,000 people gathered at the Place de l’Hôtel de Ville in the early evening at the call of several unions, including the CGT and FO, according to a police source. Several hundred young people had gone there earlier, after demonstrating in the afternoon from Saint-Lazare station.
“This decision will mark a milestone. I note that we are ultimately going towards the death of the Fifth Republic, ”says Jean-Marie, a 50-year-old teacher. He says he oscillates “between determination and dismay”.
“Tonight, it’s going to fart”
” It’s scandalous. Where is democracy ? says Béa, a 61-year-old librarian. Not far away, a forty-year-old says he is “too dejected” to react hotly. Here and there, demonstrators wear crestfallen faces. “The significant mobilization here shows the determination to go as far as withdrawal. Some say that the mobilization is weakening, I believe that it is becoming more radical,” said Raji Aletcheredji, 24, a Solidaires union member.
Several hundred people then left in wild processions interspersed with incidents in the streets of central Paris. In Lille, a few hundred demonstrators led by young antifas gathered near the prefecture, under heavy police surveillance, shortly after the announcement of the decision of the Constitutional Council. “It’s validated, tonight it’s going to blow up,” reacted a young protester, without wanting to give his name. The demonstrators then marched through the city center shouting “police everywhere, justice nowhere”, and “retirement is 60 years old, we fought to win it, we will fight to keep it”.
“We too will go through with force”
In Strasbourg, an authorized static gathering brought together 600 to 700 people in the city center. The decision of the Constitutional Council was initially welcomed in a manifestly resigned silence, before speaking during which the participants chanted several times “and we too, we are going to force through”. In Toulouse where 2,300 people had gathered in the afternoon for a demonstration, according to the prefecture, a few hundred people gathered at Place du Capitole around 6 p.m.
“It does not demobilize me at all, I am alarmed in the face of a stubborn government that is deaf to what is happening in the country. People are still mobilized, it’s strong, ”reacted Sylvie Le Coq, a 56-year-old teacher. In Dijon, braving the freezing rain, and confined to a square in the city center by a large police force, some 200 people sang songs. In Lyon, 300 to 400 people, according to the prefecture, were on the move in the city center at the start of the evening, scattered in small groups in the small streets but repelled by tear gas fire. In Grenoble, some 200 people were in a wild demonstration in the streets at the start of the evening, the police pushing them back several times.