At least 76 were arrested today after protests in France against pension reform, with demonstrators burning containers and erecting barricades. During the demonstration, the police used tear gas in response to the throwing of projectiles by some demonstrators.
After the demonstrations against the pension reform in Place de la Concorde and on the Champs Elysées in Paris were banned by the police, after two nights of protests overshadowed by incidents, around 4,000 demonstrators moved to the “Place d’Italie ”, in the south of the capital.
In that place, union activists and leftist parties mixed with demonstrators from outside any organization. The incidents that took place led to at least 76 arrests, according to Notícias ao Minuto.
Several other demonstrations, many of them organized on social media and outside unions and parties, took place in dozens of French cities, including small and medium-sized cities like Mulhouse.
In Bordeaux, rubbish bins were set on fire in a central city street, a fire quickly extinguished.
Today’s protests joined the partial stoppages organized by unions, which had held dozens of demonstrations before the controversial passage of the reform of the pension system.
Trains, refineries, the gas sector and garbage collection, among others, were affected and one of the most relevant examples is the strike by cleaning services in Paris, which has been going on for almost two weeks, with thousands of tons of garbage scattered around. through the streets of the capital.
The challenge to the pension reform decided by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, took on more radical contours, with young activists tired of the weekly processions and ready to toughen up the fight, after the Government’s decision, on Thursday, to approve the text, using to article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote, unless a motion of censure is voted on the executive.