Five people were arrested on the sidelines of violence committed overnight from Saturday to Sunday in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine). According to the prefecture, this violence punctuated with degradations was committed in the evening, a few hours after the end of the demonstration against the pension reform. “Five individuals have been arrested and will be brought before the judicial authorities” indicates the prefecture, adding that “three police officers were slightly injured”.
In the evening, clashes broke out between several young people and CRS towards Place Saint-Anne, in the city center. Around 11 p.m., a hundred demonstrators headed for the former premises of the Arvor cinema, rue d’Antrain, with the desire to open a “people’s house” there, to make it the “anchor point of the mobilization “.
According to the mayor of Rennes Nathalie Appéré, “a hundred thugs looted a clothing store, occupied a building by force, blocked a traffic lane, set fire to garbage cans and construction equipment, tagged and defaced public and private goods. While “the city center of Rennes is an inhabited, lively and dynamic city center”, “these unbearable acts endanger all those who live and work there”, she denounced. And, deplores the socialist, these “troublemakers (…) tarnish the image and serve the cause” of the current social movement.
While the Arvor was occupied, “barricades were erected with materials from neighboring sites”.
According to the prefecture, despite the invective and the throwing of projectiles, security forces and firefighters restored order overnight, with the help of municipal and metropolitan services which cleared and cleaned the roads.
According to Ouest-France and France Bleu, the occupants were still on site in the morning, and were planning a general meeting in the cinema at 2 p.m. On the facade of the cinema, which has been shut down for more than two years, they have deployed a banner that wants to “root the strike”.