In "anger" or "revolted": several thousand demonstrators gathered in several cities of France Thursday, March 16 to protest against the pension reform and the triggering of article 49.3, demonstrations sometimes marked by tensions and degradation.

In the afternoon, demonstrators gathered at the call of the union Solidaires Place de la Concorde in Paris, not far from the National Assembly where Elisabeth Borne triggered article 49.3.

Representatives of several youth organizations, student unions (Alternative), and political organizations (Jeunes insoumises, Jeunes écologistes, NPA Jeunes), at the initiative of this event, were present. They were joined by workers: railway workers, refiners in particular, then by a procession of more than 1,600 young people from the Place de la Sorbonne, to shouts of "Emmanuel Macron, president of the bosses, we come to get you home" and "Down with 49.3", noted an AFP journalist.

Water cannons and tear gas

According to a police source, they were "a few thousand" in Paris, where the police intervened in the early evening. They went into action, including with water cannons, after an attempt to damage the construction site of the Obelisk, according to the police prefecture. Several charges and tear gas jets gradually evacuated protesters from the square to the surrounding streets and neighborhoods, according to AFP journalists.

At 22 p.m., the demonstration was dispersed and 120 people had been arrested, including for participation in a group to commit damage, told AFP the prefecture of police.

Damage in Rennes

Incidents also broke out in other cities, particularly in Rennes, where the prefecture evoked eight arrests and as many police custody at the end of the evening, after multiple degradations and "26 fires extinguished". Socialist mayor Nathalie Appéré spoke on Twitter of "staggering" violence.

In Nantes, where about 3,500 people gathered in the early evening, according to the police, the atmosphere quickly deteriorated: fires of garbage cans not collected, throwing Molotov cocktails, mortar fire towards the police, who used tear gas.

In Marseille on the Canebière, where masked youths smashed the window of a bank branch and a billboard while others set fire to garbage cans to shouts of "down with the state, cops and employers," said an AFP journalist.

"Everyone growls"

The CRS also used tear gas in Amiens, Lille and Grenoble. In Dijon, where 700 people gathered, some "attacked the police and committed damage", while a mannequin with the effigy of the President of the Republic was burned, according to the prefecture. In Lyon, against a backdrop of garbage can fires and projectiles thrown at the town hall, the prefecture reported four arrests.

Demonstrations also took place in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Besançon.

"The 49.3 it necessarily strengthens a little determination," said Ruben, 20, a political science student at Paris 1 met Place de la Concorde. "We are almost disgusted because we have been mobilizing for weeks, and behind, the only response of the government is the use of 49.3," he denounced.

Engéline Allée, 48, works at RATP. "Elisabeth Borne triggered the 49.3. She set off a bomb. It will make people even angrier," she said, adding that "the whole government should resign."

"I told myself that they would respect democracy a little. A priori I am very naïve so I was surprised, I thought they were not going to dare to use the 49.3", explains Karen Mantovani, reception agent at the CPAM and CGT union delegate, met in Grenoble. "Everyone growls but it lacks action," she regrets, saying she is "revolted".

"There is a high probability that we will harden the movement," warned Sandrine Desmettre, CGT delegate at Malakoff Humanis who was demonstrating in Lille. "We said to ourselves: with everyone speaking out against this reform, a 49.3, (...) They will still not dare. Well, yes. Now it's anger. There really is abuse."

With AFP

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