Clashes with the police, scuffles and degradations punctuated the processions against the pension reform in several cities including Paris, where the parade was calmer than during the previous mobilization, noted AFP journalists. .
Some 201 people were arrested and 175 police officers and gendarmes were injured, said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin in a statement released at 11:30 p.m.
In the capital, clashes opposed the police and groups of activists dressed in black and masked faces, towards the end of the demonstration which linked the Place de la République to that of the Nation.
A Leclerc business was looted, garbage cans lit and street furniture degraded by these demonstrators whose behavior contrasts with the calm and festive one of the mass of the other participants in the procession.
The police loaded and fired tear gas grenades to “dislocate” “the block”, allow “the intervention of firefighters” and “facilitate the progression of the procession”, indicated the Paris police headquarters.
Other incidents occurred on Place de la Nation during the dispersal of the demonstration around 7:00 p.m. with stones and bottles being thrown at the police who fired numerous tear gas canisters in return.
At 8:30 p.m., calm had returned to the square, where only a few dozen demonstrators remained.
In the early evening, the police headquarters reported 55 arrests.
At least five people were taken care of by emergency services or “street medics” (volunteer rescuers), AFP journalists noted.
According to the Minister of the Interior, 13,000 police and gendarmes – including 5,500 in Paris – had been mobilized for the 10th day of protest against the pension reform, a device which he described as “unprecedented”.
In the west of France where the clashes had been particularly violent on Thursday, violence and degradation were again recorded in Nantes and Rennes despite two parades considered generally calmer.
In the Loire-Atlantique prefecture, a bank branch and a car were set on fire and the administrative court targeted.
At least five demonstrators were injured in Nantes according to AFP journalists. The prefecture announced 49 arrests. The mayor of the city Johanna Rolland deplored an “unacceptable vandalism”.
In Rennes, many damages were committed in the city center where an insurance agency was ransacked. The police used a water cannon. Six people were arrested.
In Toulouse, the demonstration was also peppered with incidents. The police used the water cannon against about fifty demonstrators, dressed in black, wearing masks and protective glasses.
Same scenario in Lyon where shops were vandalized and where the prefecture decided to use water cannons. Fifteen people were arrested.
In Lille, it was also at the end of the course that incidents broke out between the police and certain demonstrators. The first used two water cannons and fired tear gas before charging to disperse Lille demonstrators, after the arrival of the procession.
Some demonstrators responded by firing bottles at the police, who made at least one arrest. The demonstration had so far passed generally peacefully.
Jets of projectiles, use of tear gas by the police, damage have also been recorded in Bordeaux, Calais, Dijon or Caen.
In Strasbourg, a few hundred young demonstrators played cat and mouse with the police, particularly in the student district of Krutenau. Bank windows were smashed, as were at least a dozen bus shelters.
In Besançon, clashes pitted around 150 protesters against the police. The prefecture paid “homage to the union officials who intervened to prevent” the demonstrators setting fire to the door of the prefecture.
In Nancy, the police fired tear gas at the demonstrators on Place Stanislas, the main esplanade of the city.
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03/29/2023 00:20:39 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
