The decision to use 49.3 to pass the pension reform without a vote in the Assembly on Thursday aroused the discontent of the demonstrators. Gatherings and punching actions are organized all over France.
Blocking of the Paris ring road, demonstration on the rails of Bordeaux station, spontaneous gathering in the streets of Rennes… adopt without a vote the text which postpones the legal retirement age to 64 years.
About 200 demonstrators obstructed traffic on the Paris ring road on Friday morning during a blockage organized by the CGT Ile-de-France. In Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), a new demonstration took place, with a crowd that surprised the unions, reports France Bleu Armorique. Other gatherings were organized in Laval (Mayenne), Evreux (Eure) or even Rouen (Seine-Maritime), where a procession headed for the prefecture.
These spontaneous gatherings, unauthorized by the authorities, took place as soon as the use of 49.3 was announced to the National Assembly. Thursday, in Paris, “to the strongest” of the evening, around 10,000 people were gathered a few meters from the lower house of Parliament, Place de la Concorde, announced the next day on RTL Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior. Several damages have been committed in the district, with trash fires or destruction of street furniture. IThe security forces intervened to disperse the demonstrators by charging and using water cannons and tear gas. According to Gerald Darmanin, 258 people were arrested.
“Profiles of the ultra-left and ultra-right, but not only”
In smaller towns, many spontaneous gatherings have been recorded, for example in Bourges (Cher), Dole (Jura), or Albi (Tarn). In Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), Lille (Nord) or Dijon (Côte-d’Or), the police also intervened. Incidents also erupted in other cities, in particular in Rennes, where unot “group of 300 ultras” committed violence “staggering”, denounced the socialist mayor of the city, Nathalie Appéré. In response, the Minister of the Interior announced the dispatch of 60 police officers from the CRS8, a company specializing in maintaining order and urban violence. These police officers will be present at least until Monday, franceinfo learned from the minister’s entourage.
In total, according to a police report, 52,000 people participated in demonstrations Thursday evening in 24 cities, 52 people were arrested, including 49 placed in police custody, and 54 police officers were injured. “There is a base of more radical trade unionists, with a lot of ultra-left opportunist profiles and a few more people,” details the entourage of the Minister of the Interior. Thierry Clair, secretary general of Unsa Police, also notes the presence of “profiles already known to be part of the ultra-left and the ultra-right, with a history of violence in meetings or voluntary damage, but not only”. “There are also people unknown to the police”he told franceinfo.
“The climate is still in danger of becoming tense”
The use of 49.3 boils the opponents of the reform. “This announcement, it set fire to the powder”Catherine Perret, deputy secretary general of the CGT, told franceinfo on Friday. We are going to make sure to frame the demonstrations, but we cannot predict what the French want. Because some managers in the field want to go further and believe, like this CGT manager from Bouches-du-Rhône, that“there are no more rules” since “the government was the first to flout them”. “Faced with this government, we have no choice but to block this country, because we are faced with people who do not want to hear anything”, added the CGT manager Bérenger Cernon at the microphone of BFMTV, while the railway unions came out in favor of a renewal of the strike until Monday. “Today, the 49.3 of the workers are simply blockages”he insisted.
Before the “new big day of strikes and demonstrations” scheduled for Thursday March 23, the inter-union called for “local local gatherings”, Saturday and Sunday. The CGT has also announced the shutdown of the TotalEnergie refinery in Normandy this weekend. Each territory invests the contestation in its own way. “This is one of the strengths of this movement: many things are decided locally”underlines to franceinfo Frédéric Bodin, a person in charge of the service of order of the union Solidaires. “Some are content with a simple gathering, others are not”, notes the trade unionist, who believes that “the climate is still likely to become tense”.
“We must remain calm because we know very well that violence turns against us”, recommended Thursday on the franceinfo channel Céline Verzeletti, confederal secretary of the CGT. “But calm does not mean that we are not offensive. We can have actions that can be very impactful: there can be blockages, many things.
Elected officials and symbols of the Republic targeted
On the side of the Minister of the Interior, we say we are particularly attentive to these expressions of anger. “The minister says yes to declared and supervised demonstrations, no to the ‘zadisation’ of the movement”reacted to franceinfo the entourage of Gérald Darmanin after a meeting organized Friday morning with the prefects. “Also be careful when attacking the symbols of the Republic: several prefectures were under pressure yesterday [jeudi] evening”, insisted the entourage of the minister. A little earlier, on RTL, Gérald Darmanin had denounced these “targeted prefectures” Thursday at the end of the day as well as “burnt effigies” has Dijon. Because in the capital of the Côte-d’Or, “a mannequin bearing the image of the President of the Republic was set on fire”during an undeclared gathering of 700 people, according to the prefect, who announced his intention to file a complaint on behalf of the State.
Another concern for Gérald Darmanin: the protection of elected officials. In a letter sent Thursday evening to the prefects, the Minister of the Interior affirms that “parliamentarians are sometimes the subject of threats, insults, insults or malicious acts such as damage to property”, as part of the mobilization against the pension reform project. Gérald Darmanin therefore asks the prefects to “continue the surveillance put in place around the offices of parliamentarians and their homes”. This monitoring was also extended on Friday to “sensitive buildings and public places” such as prefectures, town halls or even hospitals, according to a note from the Central Directorate of Public Security that franceinfo was able to consult. Still according to this note, “it is also necessary to detect possible blockages of places of economic activity of vital importance, in particular refineries and oil depots.”
“A strike, the longer it lasts, the harder it gets. The big demonstrations are also likely to evolve”, insists Frédéric Bodin, who keeps in mind the objective of a major mobilization on March 23. “The hope that this reform will be withdrawn is still there. (…) We are at an important social moment, [qui peut aboutir] to a challenge to the government. I think we’re not far off. Either way, we won’t give up!”, assures AFP Philippe Melaine, professor of Life and Earth Sciences (SVT) in a high school. He is one of the few thousand demonstrators who decided to pound the pavement on Friday in Rennes and who kept chanting: “Today, in the street, tomorrow, we continue.”