Ihe 9th day of mobilization against the pension reform, Thursday, was marked by numerous violence, throughout the country. At least 149 gendarmes and police were injured in France on Thursday and more than 172 people arrested, said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
In Nantes and Rennes, violent clashes opposed the demonstrators to the police, who responded to the damage and the throwing of projectiles by firing tear gas and water cannons, noted journalists from Agence France- Press. The day after President Emmanuel Macron spoke to justify his pension reform, the tensions were palpable in the processions, which seemed to have strongly mobilized for this ninth day of national action. The Force Ouvrière union announced in Rennes, 35,000 participants, and 22,200 according to the prefecture.
The Rennes demonstration was not yet over when the first clashes broke out between masked and hooded young people, who had posted themselves upstream from the head of the procession, and the imposing police force. Many tear gas canisters responded to projectile throwing and trash fires, to the point that the inter-union procession stopped its progress for a moment and considered turning around in front of the thick cloud of acrid smoke, according to a AFP journalist.READ ALSOPension reform: on the pavement, the French burn-out
Tensions resumed a little later when the procession arrived at the Place de la République, where the police made extensive use of water cannons to contain the crowd and again flooded the area with tear gas. . According to a provisional report from the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine, a 41-year-old demonstrator was taken care of by firefighters for knee trauma, three members of the police were “impacted by jets of projectiles” and four people were arrested.
The demonstration in Paris degenerates
Violence erupted at the head of the demonstration in Paris, where several hundred radical elements dressed in black smashed shop windows and street furniture. People, identified as black blocks, notably smashed the windows of a convenience store on Boulevard Saint-Martin, which leads to Place de l’Opéra, the arrival point of the Parisian inter-union procession. They then picked up cobblestones and various projectiles, before attacking a McDonald’s fast food restaurant. Several trash cans and scooters were also set on fire.
READ ALSO“We want Macron to get out! “: in Paris, the fed up of the demonstrators
Shortly after the departure of the procession, some fireworks had already been launched near the Place de la République in the direction of the police, who immediately responded with tear gas. According to the police headquarters, “about a thousand” radical elements, dressed in black and equipped with masks and glasses, were present in the procession.
The police intervened, in particular with several charges, with the aim of “breaking up the block”, added the police headquarters. At least one injured protester was taken care of by firefighters, noted an AFP journalist. An “incendiary device” was also launched in a bank on boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, said the police headquarters.
The Minister of the Interior, speaking from the Paris police headquarters on Thursday evening, denounced 1,500 thugs present in Paris to “break cops and public buildings”. Many of those arrested are “young”, “many are known” as belonging to the “ultra-left”, he said again, denouncing “the bordélisation desired by part of the far left”, which “will not win”.
Unprecedented troubles in Lorient
In Nantes, the police announced 25,000 demonstrators but the unions claim 80,000 demonstrators, the largest mobilization since the start of the movement. The demonstration had started calmly shortly after 10:30 a.m., but became tense two hours later: to the throwing of projectiles, the security forces responded by firing tear gas, almost continuously for more than an hour, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. Many demonstrators expressed their anger with aggressive slogans against the police – “murderous rapist cops” – or with numerous stickers on the walls of the city. READ ALSOWhat is the Brav-M, this police unit that LFI wants to dismantle?
A symptom of the tensions, the demonstration organized in Lorient (Morbihan) was also marked by unprecedented unrest, when demonstrators, mostly young people with hidden faces, targeted the police and the police station. city. Windows of the building, where the police had taken refuge, were broken by projectiles and fires lit against the gate, before the intervention of the gendarmes to disperse the crowd, noted an AFP correspondent.
On Twitter, Gérald Darmanin condemned these troubles. “Unacceptable attacks and degradations against the sub-prefecture and the Lorient police station. Thoughts to injured officials. These acts cannot go unpunished,” he shared.
Unacceptable attacks and degradations against the sub-prefecture and the Lorient police station. Thoughts to injured officials. These acts cannot go unpunished.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) March 23, 2023
In Lorient, a demonstrator lost her thumb, according to the police on the spot, reports BFMTV. The precise circumstances of the accident are still unknown at this stage. On the Bordeaux side, clashes took place between the demonstrators and the CRS. A video shared by a journalist from Actu.fr shows projectile throwing and a response with tear gas.
At the end of the evening, the entrance to the town hall of Bordeaux was set on fire. “Demonstrating and making disagreements heard is a right. The violence and degradation that we have witnessed today are unacceptable”, denounced the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne.