I amThe Place de la Concorde was kept under close watch by hundreds of police officers and projected water cannons. Police checked passers-by several times and asked those who were stopped to leave.
By 7 p.m., the square had been emptied of the hundreds of people who had been there an hour earlier, walking around without signs or banners, unable to tell whether they were passers-by or potential demonstrators.
The prefecture had earlier announced a ban on gatherings at the venue, which is a few hundred meters from the National Assembly and the Elysée, where protesters gathered on Thursday and Friday evenings. On Friday, violent clashes ensued, resulting in the arrest of 61 people.
In Paris, the CGT Ile-de-France organized a rally on the Place d’Italie (south of Paris) that turned into a procession and headed north of the capital. Among the participants, Ms Allemand (who did not want to give her first name), a technician at Public Health France, said she was “tired of work”. “I sit in front of the computer all day, my eyes hurt, my head hurts, I already had two phlebitis,” says this 55-year-old woman. Clashes started in the evening: garbage fires, looted bus shelters, etc.
“We will continue”
A few hundred demonstrators marched in Marseille. Romain Morissot, 33, a telecoms engineer in the aviation industry, testifies: “What do we have but to continue to demonstrate? We only have mobilization and it was quiet until 49.3. But now it is going to cause social tension everywhere. We will continue, we have no choice.
Meetings took place in many places in the regions, from large cities to medium-sized cities: Lille, Amiens, Caen, Saint-Etienne, Rhône, Besançon, Dijon, Grenoble, Cape, Annecy, Loteve, etc.
Some marches counted several thousand people, with some tension, in Nantes (6,000 according to the police, 15,000 according to the unions) or Brest (between 5 and 8,000). In Bordeaux, an improvised march drew 1,900 people, according to the province, and face-to-face encounters with police took place on rue Sainte-Catherine, Europe’s longest pedestrian street.
Thursday, after Elizabeth Bourne invoked Article 49.3 of the constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a referendum, except for a resolution of censure, which the union called for between rallies this weekend. March 23 for the 9th day of strikes and demonstrations. “The President of the Republic is openly following the evolution of the situation,” Emmanuel Macron’s entourage said.
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