Garbage fires, barricades, processions walking the streets: sporadic points of tension crossed some arteries of the center of Paris on Monday 20 March in the early evening, as well as in Strasbourg, in the east of the France, just after the adoption of the pension reform with the support of article 49.3.

In Paris, after the rejection of the motion of censure against the government of Elisabeth Borne, a few hundred people joined by deputies of the France Insoumise (LFI), first gathered Place Vauban in the seventh arrondissement, before being channeled by the police.

Wild demonstration underway on the rue de Rivoli in Paris. Barricades are erected #ReformeDesRetraites #Manifestations pic.twitter.com/cT6ZV7pn68

— HQ Free Media (@LibreQg) March 20, 2023

đź”´ Thousands of people march #Paris to places of power. #Acte5 pic.twitter.com/v5pv14OcnS

— Clément Lanot (@ClementLanot) March 20, 2023

Then, garbage fires and clashes with the police were spotted in the area of the Saint-Lazare station (IXe), around the Place de l'Opéra, where many CRS buses were parked.

A procession of a hundred people, mostly young, then traveled shortly after 21 p.m. on rue Réaumur and rue Montmartre, overturning the trash cans of traders. They were followed by BRAV-M police officers on motorcycles. A hundred people, according to an AFP journalist, were also in Châtelet, not far from the City Hall.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m., 101 people were arrested during these incidents, according to a police source.

Around 2,000 demonstrators in Strasbourg

In Strasbourg, about 2,000 people, according to the prefecture, gathered at first at Place Kléber, in the heart of the Alsatian capital. Protesters vigorously whistled and booed at the news of the rejection of a motion of no confidence in the government.

The demonstrators lit smoke bombs and chanted "We too will force our way through" before moving forward. There, several individuals committed damage on the quays along the Ill. The façade of a bank was stoned and tagged, most of the garbage cans on the dock were set on fire and billboards were smashed.

"My state of mind is an infinite disgust, it is a denial of democracy in form, in substance," said Giampiero Russo, professor of economic and social sciences in Strasbourg, before the procession set off. I watched on the parliamentary channel, even the centrist MP who made the motion was interrupted in the middle, as if it were pure formalism. We no longer give ourselves the means to live our democracy."

The police, who used tear gas several times, made five arrests, said the prefecture around 22:30 p.m., as the demonstrators had dispersed.

Damage had already been committed on Friday evening in Strasbourg. Protesters smashed the windows of Galeries Lafayette and a bus shelter, furniture and flower boxes were overturned and garbage cans set on fire.

With AFP

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