Latin American Summary, March 31, 2023.
Protests against the pension reform promoted by President Emmanuel Macron continue in France despite police repression.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Lyon, Nantes, Toulouse, Paris (capital) and other French cities on Thursday, protesting against the repression in Sainte-Soline, a day when two people were seriously injured last Saturday.
In the city of Nantes, in western France, police resorted to using tear gas to disperse thousands of people.
The protests in Paris/France are still ongoing, the protesters claiming to be fed up with Macron politics, war, NATO, inflation… and they want the world to know! pic.twitter.com/0BPgwFNR73
— Blum News Outlet (@bellblum) March 31, 2023
On the other hand, more than 4,000 people took to the streets of Paris, in a concentration that turned violent in the center of the capital.
According to a report by the French police, there were seven arrests during the day.
“The mobilization is still just as important” with “many young people” in the demonstrations, has assured the President of the General Confederation of Trade Unions (CGT), Philippe Martínez, for whom this “is proof that the movement is not ending”. . . .
Since January 19, unions have organized ten days of mass protests against controversial pension reforms that raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Popular mobilizations intensified in mid-March when French President Emmanuel Macron adopted them by decree in order not to lose the parliamentary vote.
Recent mobilizations have been marked by riots and clashes between radical protesters and security forces in major cities, resulting in hundreds of arrests and injuries between protesters and police officers.
In this regard, a group of 30 lawyers expressed their “great concern” at the arbitrary arrests of hundreds of people and accused the police of using the judicial system and arrests as a tactic to thwart police protests in an open letter published on Monday .