Demonstrations against pension reform: from Brest to Paris, a tense day – Pension reform

The movement against the pension reform has hardened since the Prime Minister announced the use of Article 49.3 on Thursday… In Paris, the police headquarters took a measure this Saturday to try to prevent excesses: “Any gathering on the public thoroughfare place de la Concorde and its surroundings as well as in the sector of the avenue des Champs-Elysées is prohibited”, she announced, arguing “serious risks of disturbances to order and public safety”. “People who try to gather there will be systematically evicted by the police.”

Rallying place in the evening since Thursday, the Concorde, a few hundred meters from the National Assembly and the Elysee Palace, was the scene of clashes between police and demonstrators on Friday evening, with 61 arrests in the end.

But this Saturday, it was finally on the Place d’Italie, in the south of Paris, that 4,000 people gathered around 6 p.m. Garbage cans were set on fire.

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Tense face-to-face in Brest

It is not only in the capital that the situation has become tense… In Brest, the demonstration this Saturday ended in the fog of tear gas. Some 6,000 demonstrators (8,000 according to the unions) first marched peacefully at the start of the afternoon. Then the mood changed dramatically. Black outfits and mostly masked faces, the head of the procession suddenly headed for the sub-prefecture. The police then used tear gas to disperse the thousand people still present, shortly before 4:30 p.m.

Some then went to the office of the deputy, for the same conclusion, in the fog of the gases. They finally took the direction of the Espace Jaurès with the desire to “block the shopping centers”, but the gates were closed before their arrival. A few trash cans were set on fire on the tram tracks. The police again intervened to disperse them. Around 6 p.m., calm seemed to have returned to the city center.

In Rennes, the Alma center is barricaded

In Rennes, a hundred students from Rennes 2 took the direction of the shopping mall of the Alma center, which was also barricaded before their arrival. More than 1,000 customers remained locked inside for 30 minutes, resulting in some surreal scenes… Panicked, some people tried to force their way in by knocking on the doors, others circled each exit, in vain.

In the evening, it was mainly in the city center, around Place Sainte-Anne and Les Lices, that the police focused their attention.

In Quimperlé, a descent on the RN165

Another means of action brought up to date in Quimperlé: the demonstrators decided to block the expressway. 1,300 people first walked the streets of Quimperlé calmly this Saturday morning. Then the situation became tense. Despite the opposition of the gendarmes, some descended on the RN 165 at the Kervidanou exit, in Mellac. The road was blocked for more than an hour in both directions.

In Lannion and Dinan too, we denounce “the contempt” of 49.3

In Lannion, between 1,800 people (according to information) and 3,000 (according to the unions) shouted their anger this Saturday: “The 49.3 is once too many, the total lack of listening, contempt”, thought Anne. “We are not revolutionaries, assured Maïwenn. We just want to have a retirement, and not too late”.

In Dinan, for the third consecutive day since the use of 49-3, 150 people gathered on the Esplanade de la Resistance before occupying Place Duclos. Innovation of the day, some had brought a barbecue to offer sausage patties, in addition to the drink already set up the day before.