After the strong tensions and ransacking in several French cities last Thursday, the mobilization of this Tuesday generally took place in calm.
The demonstrators were fewer than last week: the Ministry of the Interior counted 740,000 demonstrators in France - including 93,000 in Paris - against more than two million for the CGT, and 450,000 in the capital.
Next door, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, had announced the mobilization of 13,000 police and gendarmes, including 5,500 for Paris alone.
A device that the minister had described as
"unpublished".
Some tensions, however, enamelled the processions as in Paris, Toulouse or Nantes.
Processions rather calm overall
While the authorities feared excesses, to the point of providing an imposing security device, the 258 rallies organized in France generally took place in peace.
Faced with the ten police forces deployed in France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of rebellious France had called on his troops
"in cold blood": "France is not led by cudgels".
Festive and rather calm processions in France, this Tuesday
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Many gatherings also took place in large cities as well as in smaller municipalities.
Between 4,600 and 25,000 demonstrators, according to the prefecture and the Intersyndicale, were thus present in Limoges.
The crowd was still large in Limoges.
PASCAL LACHENAUD / AFP
70 arrests in Paris, several demonstrators injured
If the parade was calmer than during the previous day of mobilization, damage and clashes with the police marred the procession in Paris.
At the end of the course, in particular, clashes pitted certain masked activists dressed in black against the police.
Further upstream, a Leclerc business was ransacked and looted and fires lit.
Street furniture was damaged.
Actions which contrasted however with a calm and festive procession, according to several journalists on the spot.
A Leclerc business was ransacked and looted on the sidelines of the Parisian demonstration.
Wladimir Garcin / Le Figaro
The Paris prefecture also told AFP that the authorities had loaded and fired tear gas grenades in order to
"dislocate the block"
to
"allow the intervention of firefighters"
and
"facilitate the progress of the procession".
The police dispersed the demonstrators around 7 p.m., Place de la Nation.
A few incidents occurred, in particular the throwing of cobblestones and bottles at the police and gendarmes who for their part fired numerous tear gas canisters.
However, calm was back in the capital around 8:30 p.m.
According to the police headquarters, 70 people were arrested.
Clashes on the sidelines of the Parisian demonstration
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Several people were injured.
According to AFP, at least five people were taken care of by emergency services and three others by "street medics" (volunteer rescuers).
A demonstrator who was crossing the street at the time of a police charge was violently hit and evacuated by the firefighters.
A demonstrator was violently rammed after a police charge.
CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
High tensions in Toulouse and Bordeaux
The pink city was the scene of strong tensions on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the rally against the pension reform.
150,000 people gathered according to the unions, against 25,000 for the police.
Several fires were started, a restaurant in particular was affected, according to the regional daily
La Dépêche du Midi.
Street furniture was also damaged.
At least 16 people were arrested.
The police used the water cannon against about fifty demonstrators, dressed in black, wearing masks and protective glasses.
Violent clashes in Toulouse and Bordeaux
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Damage was also recorded in Bordeaux where between 11,000 and 80,000 people gathered.
A fire was notably started on the Victory campus.
At least six people were arrested.
Six police officers and a protester were also injured.
New clashes and damage in the West
Violence and damage were again recorded in Nantes and Rennes after the violent clashes on Thursday.
Despite parades deemed generally calmer, a bank branch and a car were set on fire in the Loire-Atlantique prefecture.
The administrative court was also targeted.
49 people were arrested according to the prefecture.
At least five demonstrators were injured and a dozen police officers.
The mayor of the city Johanna Rolland deplored an
“unacceptable vandalism”.
In Rennes, many damages were committed in the city center where an insurance agency was ransacked.
The police used a water cannon.
Six people were arrested.
New violence and degradation in the West
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Elsewhere in France, businesses were also vandalized in Lyon where the prefecture decided to use water cannons and where 15 people were arrested.
In Lille, incidents broke out at the end of the course between the police and some demonstrators.
Jets of projectiles, use of tear gas by the police, damage have also been recorded in Bordeaux, Calais, Dijon or Caen.
The Ardennes prefecture also denounced
"serious violence"
in Charleville-Mézières, where
"bottles of acid"
were thrown at the police.
18 people were arrested.