Water cannons and downtown in Rennes (West) smothered in tear gas, degradation and clashes in Paris: The demonstrations against the highly controversial pension reform triggered renewed tension in several French cities on Thursday.
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Sporadic since the start of the mobilization on January 19, the violence has resurfaced, sometimes spectacularly, once again monopolizing the antenna of the television stations and evoking memories of the popular “yellow vest” movement of 2018/2019.
According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, 123 gendarmes and police officers were injured in the incidents and more than 80 people were arrested.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne judged the “violence and humiliation” at these demonstrations as “unacceptable” on Thursday evening.
“Demonstrating and making disagreements heard is a right. The violence and humiliation we witnessed today is unacceptable,” she wrote on Twitter.
In Paris, where the police headquarters counted “about a thousand” radical elements, in the west and north of the country or in Toulouse (south), this 9th day of union mobilization drew a map of tensions in France, which does not include the Mediterranean area and in particular Marseille, whose record mobilization according to the unions (280,000) contrasts with the figures of the prefecture (16,000).
In Paris, violence erupted at the forefront of the demonstration, with its share of smashed windows and destroyed street furniture. As opposed to a procession where the vast majority of protesters marched peacefully.
Throughout the parade, people dressed in black and equipped with masks and glasses demolished several convenience stores, fast food restaurants and banks, according to AFP journalists.
Incidents continued into the early evening, including burning trash cans and newsstands.
“Scenes of Chaos”
In Rouen (north-west), a protester in her 30s who works with disabled children had her thumb ripped off, according to Alma Dufour, a member of the radical left who questions the police’s use of a centrifugal grenade.
In Nantes, protesters broke into the administrative court, looted the reception and smashed windows and doors. Several stores were damaged.
In Lorient, the police station and police were targeted by protesters, mostly young people with hidden faces. The windows of the building were shattered by projectiles.
In Rennes, between fishermen and law enforcement day after day, tear gas canisters fired in response to projectile throwing and garbage fires, dumping the union’s procession, trapped in a vise, in a thick cloud of acrid smoke. Mayor Nathalie Appéré was moved by “Scenes of Chaos”.
The interior minister denounced “unacceptable attacks”. Faced with increasing radicalization, he announced on Thursday the mobilization of 12,000 police officers and gendarmes, including 5,000 in Paris.
“It’s been more tense since the wild demonstrations, since Friday. Before the procession passed, it was quiet. But garbage cans, tear gas, have been burning there for a few days. The demonstrators are on their toes, the police too, and there are more,” said a merchant from Strasbourg (east), who preferred to remain anonymous.
Until then, the mobilization of young people has increased in the past week, rather hesitantly – since the topic of pensions seems to be far removed from their worries. The reasons for this development? The use of 49.3, which allowed the reform to be adopted without a vote, the images of police violence or the recent speeches of President Emmanuel Macron, who considered that the “crowd” had “no legitimacy” in the face of the people they represented elected representatives, according to the testimonies collected in the processions.
Shortly before the start of the Paris demonstration, the general secretary of the moderate CFDT union Laurent Berger had called for “non-violence”. For his part, his CGT colleague Philippe Martinez had estimated that Emmanuel Macron “threw a can of petrol on the fire” and recalled that the unions had written to him to draw his attention to the “explosive situation” in the country.
The incidents have been denounced by the right, with Republican Party President Eric Ciotti blasting “thugs (who) want terror”.
Conversely, the left underlined the scale of the social mobilization, “the largest since May 1968” for the leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.