Mathilde and several of her colleagues from the Faculty of Architecture carry a cardboard garbage can from which the French president, Emmanuel Macron, leans out smiling, next to a banner that reads: “Put down the brushes. Pick up the forks.” They are part of the Paris procession against the unpopular pension reform, which has the country protesting in the streets for three months.
“At first it was for the law, now for our freedom,” says the young woman. A little behind them, in the march that runs through Paris, another group of young people can be seen, these are from “Mathematics in struggle”, and a little further behind those from Fine Arts, who show a figure of the president crowned as if he were a king .
The demonstration in Paris began at two in the afternoon in the Republic Square and has traveled a short distance to the Nation Square, where clashes are already taking place between a group of protesters and the police.
In other cities, Bordeaux, Nice, Nantes or Marseille, the demonstrations against the law began in the morning, with less participation and also with much more calm. In Lyon and Bordeaux there are also moments of friction with the forces of order.
In Paris there have been some 450,000 demonstrators, according to the unions, 93,000 according to the authorities. It’s half the other day. There are 5,500 police officers deployed. The movement gives a truce, at least today, after a week and a half of great tension and riots that have left fires, destruction and strong clashes between protesters and law enforcement.
The participation of young people today has been important. “We don’t want this society,” cries one of the young protesters, who sings along with the rest of her classmates. “Not only does he want to take away the rights our parents fought for. On top of that, he does it with arrogance and bypassing the citizens. He approves the law, whether we want it or not,” says Anne.
The garbage strike that has been going on in Paris for three weeks has unleashed the ingenuity of the banner bearers. In some, Macron is seen surrounded by garbage, in others inside a container. Another sign of truce is that the end of this strike that has had the capital surrounded by waste has been declared today. In recent days enough had been removed to prevent protesters from burning them.
Arnaud, retired, is sitting in the Place de la République, dressed in a suit and 500 Monopoli bills sticking out of his jacket.
-Why are you here?
I have been retired for a long time. I do not come for myself, but for the rights of the youngest. For yours, for example.
-I’m Spanish, we already retired there later than you.
-That’s why! You have to fight before that happens,” cries this protester.
The unions, who were testing today their ability to keep the protest alive, have extended their hand to the Government this morning and have asked it to withdraw the rule and resort to a mediator to unblock the crisis, especially after the strong riots last Thursday, something that was automatically rejected. “We don’t need a mediator to talk to the unions,” the spokesman, Olivier Véran, said shortly after the council of ministers.
In recent days, in an attempt to calm things down, the Executive had been open to talking with the unions. Of course, Macron and the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, have warned that the reform will not be touched. United for the first time in many years, the workers’ representatives have been the ones who have led the protest. In the Paris march, the “strike piggy bank” posts proliferated, where donations are requested to compensate the employees who go on strike for so long.
The protest has radicalized in the last week and a half, after the approval of the law by decree, without going through a parliamentary vote. This has caused spontaneous demonstrations almost daily and the ninth day of strike called by the unions, last Thursday, ended with scenes of violence and major destruction in many French cities, especially Paris.
To avoid this, Interior has launched an unprecedented police device, with 13,000 agents and 5,500 only in Paris. The head, Gérald Darmanin, had already warned that there were “very significant risks of public disorder” facing today’s day and warned of the presence of a thousand extreme left radicals, “who are prepared to do harm”.
“They are not protesting the pension reform, but are seeking to destabilize the institutions,” said the minister, who recorded more than 800 officers injured in the last week and a half, more than 2,000 fires and numerous acts of vandalism against public buildings or institutions .
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
