The government’s recourse to 49.3 to pass a controversial pension reform led to harsh measures and demonstrations punctuated by a few incidents.
On the evening of Friday, March 17, several thousand people gathered on the Place de la Concorde, in Paris, a few hundred meters from the Assembly. A bonfire was lit, lit by protesters, and the atmosphere became tense by nightfall, according to AFP reporters.
sequel after announcement
Hundreds clashed with 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 in the evening.
Annuities: Retrieved the next day to government 49.3
In Strasbourg, 1,600 demonstrators gathered on Place Kleber. “We too will pass by force.”The demonstrators echoed. The province reported “Deterioration” In the city center, but without arrests.
In Lyon, protesters stormed the town hall and set a fire, but police quickly put it out and arrested 36 people, according to the prefecture.
In Lyon, too, a few hundred young men set rubbish bins on fire, overturned motorcycles, smashed billboards, threw fireworks and branded shop windows, shouting: “For whom? For whom? It’s ours!”According to an AFP correspondent immediately. The police responded with tear gas.
sequel after announcement
Should the Fifth Republic retire at 64?
A thousand people marched through downtown Lille, and a procession of a few hundred demonstrators smoothly dispersed through Bordeaux.
Prohibition of actions and strikes
The blocking of the Paris ring road, the stations of Toulon or Bordeaux, a strike at the Opéra de Lyon, demonstrations … Opponents of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 intermittently resumed fighting on Friday, most often at the initiative of the CGT.
Article 49.3 of the Constitution was activated Thursday, which allows the text to be adopted without a vote, except for a motion of censure. “Like an insult. We haven’t been listened to for weeks, it just pissed me off.”More than 2,000 people demonstrated on Friday, including several hundred high school students, Philippe Mellen, an SVT teacher at a public secondary school in Rennes, told AFP.
Myriam Rivault Dalonis: “This second term for Emmanuel Macron shows blindness to the reality of the democratic experiment.”
In Bordeaux, on the tracks or on the platforms of the station, waving their flags in the colors of the main guilds, 200 people shouted: “anger rises”.
sequel after announcement
“49.3 made everyone nervous.”Anticipating the strike, Remy Venet, general secretary of CGT Cheminots in Bordeaux, told AFP extends to other sectors.
CGT also announced the closure of its TotalEnergie refinery in Normandy this weekend.
Today, Thursday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the arrest of 310 people in France, including 258 in Paris. “burnt statues” in Dijon and “Targeted Provinces”.
SNCF unions are demanding “Keep striking” Renewed started on the 7th and “to work hard” next Thursday.
