Europe 1 with AFP 20:53 p.m., March 19, 2023

For the fourth consecutive evening, an undeclared demonstration took place in the capital. This time, it is the busy district of Les Halles that has been invested by opponents of the pension reform. For now, the rally is taking place peacefully.

A few hundred people gathered Sunday in Les Halles, in the heart of Paris in the late afternoon, chanting for the fourth consecutive evening in the capital slogans targeting Emmanuel Macron and the police and rejecting the use of 49.3 to pass the pension reform. Started around 18 p.m. in this shopping district and very busy, the rally took place in peace, according to an AFP journalist on the spot.

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"The government did not want to talk, it is responsible for this impasse. Repeated gatherings are the only way to put pressure on him. The street expresses itself, and if it burns things it is to be heard," said Pierre Simon, 24. "Retirement at 60 we fought to win, we will fight to keep it," chanted the crowd, closely supervised by the police on the eve of a decisive day with the debate in the National Assembly on motions of censure.

Incidents had broken out on Saturday night

The capital has experienced three evenings of tension since the announcement Thursday of the appeal by Elisabeth Borne to article 49.3 of the Constitution which allows the adoption of a text without a vote, except motion of censure. Thursday and Friday, the anger of thousands of people had erupted Place de la Concorde, leading the police prefecture to prohibit until Tuesday any gathering on this square, located near the National Assembly and at the foot of the Champs-Elysees, and which remained Sunday under police surveillance.

Saturday, several thousand people, at the call of the CGT Ile-de-France, "4,000" according to the police, had converged Place d'Italie and then incidents had broken out. On Saturday alone, 400 checks took place at Place de la Concorde and 122 arrests were made in the capital, according to the Ministry of the Interior.