Almost from the start of the procession, which left the Esplanade des Invalides, on the left bank of the Seine, south-east of the capital towards Place d’Italie, the walkers, mostly young people, began to provoke the forces of order that accompanied the columns.
They tried to keep them at bay using, as usual, tear gas. However, unlike previous protests, several dozen angry guys attacked the police with their fists. Several people were injured in the fight.
A little later, in the direction of the police and special forces officers of the gendarmerie, “tools of the proletariat” flew – cobblestones taken from the sidewalk. Each weighing three or even four kilograms. One of them hit the head of the commissioner of a special motorcycle police unit (Brav-M). He was saved by a helmet that took the hit. However, the commissioner collapsed to the ground as if knocked down, and he was rushed and in dire straits to the nearest hospital.
During the demonstration, and according to the organizers, around 400,000 people take part in it in Paris (the local Ministry of the Interior estimates that there are four times less), several cars were set on fire, the Crédit Agricole bank l agency was destroyed, several bus stops, other city furniture.
The Rotunda restaurant was also affected, in which in the spring of 2017 Emmanuel Macron, together with his wife Brigitte and his associates, celebrated the victory in the first round of the presidential election. Despite the fact that the restaurant was under the protection of at least a hundred police officers, the demonstrators managed to throw a Molotov cocktail at it. Admittedly, the fire that had broken out was quickly extinguished.
More than two dozen protesters were arrested. Apparently, their numbers will increase by the evening.
The demonstrators demand the abolition of the pension reform law and angrily denounce the authorities’ refusal to respond to the demands of the unions, the main driver of the current protest. They are also outraged by the position of Prime Minister Elisabeth Born during this week’s meeting with representatives of the main trade union centres. It was supposed to last at least three hours, but literally 50 minutes later the union leaders slammed the door.
As Sophie Binet, who recently replaced Philip Martinez at the head of the largest trade union confederation, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), put it, “the meeting has lost all meaning” after the Prime Minister made it clear that the authorities’ position on raising the retirement age remains unchanged.
For his part, Laurent Berger, president of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (FDLT) trade union federation, believes that the “current social crisis is turning into a crisis of democracy”.
