March 17, 2023 8:30 p.m
Thousands of people gathered at the Place de la Concorde. Police carried out multiple charges while being thrown by protesters with stones and bottles
Tgcom24
TO Paris New clashes in the Place de la Concorde, which has become the spontaneous meeting place for thousands of people to protest against the pension reform. Around 3,000 demonstrators gathered around the obelisk, Groups of youths with masked faces set fire to a large amount of barricades and building materials. Police carried out multiple charges while being thrown by protesters with stones and bottles. The police used tear gas.
Photo gallery – Paris, clashes and tear gas in the Place de la Concorde
Burned effigy of Macron An effigy of President Emmanuel Macron was also burned by the demonstrators in the square. Tensions have also broken out between demonstrators and the police in Bordeaux. Tear gas was fired into the streets and police attacks were carried out. Tensions were also reported in Lille.
In the place of the guillotine La Concorde, where the silhouette of the guillotine loomed at the time of the revolution, is now becoming the symbolic site of the revolt against the pension reform wanted by Emmanuel Macron: after the spontaneous rally on Thursday evening to protest the government’s decision to overrun parliament and the ones that followed After heavy clashes, the historic square has once again become the center of protests.
Retired at 64 (out of 62) Groups of demonstrators, many young people and more and more “yellow vests” gathered on the largest square in Paris. A few tens of meters away, across the Seine, is the heavily armored Assemblèe Nationale, where the government defied popular anger by taking the shortcut of the “Confidence” to pass a law raising the retirement age from 62 dictates to 64 years old, disliked by 70% of the French.
Thursday already 300 stops The flare-up of protests on Thursday ended late at night with heavy damage and more than 300 arrests across the country, 258 in Paris alone. But it appears to be just the beginning of a new season of revolt, and for that very reason, authorities seem concerned about the reappearance of many “yellow vest” leaders among the protesters.
The move of the opposition On the political front, weapons are being sharpened for Monday’s clash, when the opposition will seek to tweak the last institutional opportunity they have left: overthrow the government of Elisabeth Borne. Which would also take the hated reform with him if he were toppled. Two motions of no confidence have been tabled so far: one by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National, which would not rally the votes of the left; the other – more strategic – by the small group of independent Liot MPs. The alliance of the left, Nupes, also signed it immediately, with the consequent withdrawal of the proposal of the Melinchoniers from La France Insoumise, who refrained from directing the highest votes to that of Liot.
But the goal is difficult The target remains very difficult because even if Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Me’lenchon have all the votes and add a proportion of “disobedient” Republicans at the head of the allied government, we remain quite far from the required 287 votes: between 25 and 15 votes would be missing according to the latest tally from website Le Figaro. Locally, union leaders have already announced another mobilization day for Thursday 23 March in hopes of reversing the trend of falling participation in recent weeks.
Garbage collectors’ strike, streets of Paris covered in rubbish
The strikes to the bitter end The sectors where the indefinite strike declared on March 7 is still functioning are mainly those of urban sanitation (10,000 tons of garbage pollute Paris, even if the commandments started today) and those of energy. The CGT, one of the main unions, has announced the closure of the TotalEnergies refinery in Normandy. The largest gas storage facility in Europe was also shut down by the employees: the flow rate was reduced to 70,000 cubic meters per hour, “technically the minimum in order not to damage the machines”.
But the transport works The rest continues to function, albeit with some inconvenience, including transport, which has traditionally been the sector that brings the country to its knees and which this time has a strike rate that does not cause too much inconvenience. Beyond the proclamations of the unions – until now they have always remained a unified bloc – Mèlenchon went further and “encouraged” the “spontaneous mobilizations across the country”. By choosing to bypass Parliament, “we have achieved our goal – he added – this text has no legitimacy, those who rebel are right”.
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