May Day demonstration: full of aggression and tear gas

In the Parisian procession, the tension rises with in particular jets of projectiles against the police and stoned windows. “The prefect of police, given the numerous degradations committed, decided on the intervention of the forces in the pre-procession to put an end to the incidents and separate the pre-procession from the trade union procession”, indicated the police prefecture ( PP). According to the same source, 2,740 checks had been carried out at 2:10 p.m., before the start of the demonstration. At 3 p.m., 30 people had been arrested, according to the PP. The Paris parade must go to the Place de la Nation.

More than 2 million French people according to the CGT and nearly 800,000 according to the Ministry of the Interior took to the streets on Monday for the traditional May Day parade, associated this year with a thirteenth day of mobilization against the pension reform .

This May 1st was also marred by violence in Paris, Lyon and Nantes. Tensions quickly erupted in the pre-cortege of the capital, with in particular throwing of projectiles against the police and stoned windows. 111 people were arrested in Paris and a policeman “seriously injured, burned following a throw of a Molotov cocktail”, announced, on Twitter, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

So many law enforcement officers injured

At least 108 police and gendarmes were injured on Monday in France, including “twenty” in Paris, during the May Day protests, said Gérald Darmanin, adding that 291 people had been arrested in the country, including 90 in the capital. .

The last procession of the Parisian demonstration arrived at Place de la Nation before 7 p.m., the end of the Parisian parade. Boulevard Voltaire had its share of smashed storefronts and bus shelters, defaced facades, burning bins and clouds of tear gas, but the day passed in relative calm compared to some of the previous protests. against the pension reform in the capital.

“It’s a big May 1st”, launched this Monday at the start of the afternoon the leader of the CFDT Laurent Berger. It is indeed almost historic: 2.3 million people demonstrated in France according to the CGT and 782,000 according to the Ministry of the Interior, the largest crowd for May Day since 2002 and the demonstration to “block ” to Jean-Marie Le Pen, then in the second round of the presidential election.

“This May 1st is one of the strongest of the social movement”, also welcomed Sophie Binet, the new general secretary of the CGT, recalling that this day was also the thirteenth day of inter-union mobilization against the pension reform.

This workers’ day “takes place in union unity and that alone is historic”, rejoiced the general secretary of FO, Frédéric Souillot.

112,000 demonstrators were counted in Paris by the police headquarters, four times more than last year on May 1, including 24,000 in Paris.

While part of the head procession arrived at Place de la Nation, in Paris, demonstrators attacked an agency of the Societe Generale bank. The police responded by using tear gas.

The fire that broke out around 6:30 p.m. on the facade of an office building under construction at 15, place de la Nation. The CRS had to use their water cannon to control the flames. Five fire engines are on the scene. The fire started at the level of the works at the bottom of the building, before spreading to the facade.

According to the Paris police headquarters, violent people had set fire to two cans of fuel that were in front of a construction site.

Dozens of international unions present in the Paris procession

Several dozen foreign trade union representatives are demonstrating this Monday in Paris alongside officials of the intersyndicale. They come from South Korea, the United States, Colombia or even Spain.

Place de la Nation was the scene of clashes between the black bloc and the police, with exchanges of stones, bottles, road signs thrown in all directions at the police. in turn, the security forces used tear gas, water cannon.
At the same time, abuses against journalists have taken place by the police, forbidding them to approach certain places and to stop filming or taking photos. such excesses indicate that the right to information and the freedom of expression of the press are censored.

The exchanges of projectiles, stones and bottles on one side, tear gas canisters on the other, lasted two hours, before the atmosphere calmed down.

The last Parisian demonstrators, surrounded by the police, are invited to rush down the stairs of the metro and evacuated, calmly, from the Place de la Nation, which will be returned to traffic.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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