Despite the ban on all gatherings, several thousand people demonstrated on Monday May 8 in Lyon to protest against the pension reform and pay tribute to the resistance fighters. At the same time, Emmanuel Macron was paying homage to Jean Moulin at the Montluc Prison Memorial, where he was detained along with other Resistance figures.
The Rhône prefecture having prohibited any gathering in a large perimeter around the memorial, the organizers were forced to gather in groups before marching along the edge of the prohibited area.
Some 3,000 people according to the prefecture, 5,000 according to the CGT, took part in the demonstration peppered with tear gas and some damage: windows of the door of the town hall of the district broken, like car windows and a bus shelter, overturned glass container, flaming pallets.
"The Resistance concerns everyone, it's not normal that we can't attend the tribute ceremonies to Montluc," said Jean-Pierre Mestat, a 74-year-old retiree, among the demonstrators. “People are angry. If we want to bring down the anger, we have to act differently. »
The administrative court of Lyon rejected in the morning an appeal for interim relief filed the day before by unions, including the CGT du Rhône, against the prefectural ban on demonstrating near the memorial where the president was to pay tribute to Jean Moulin and to resisters. The CGT maintained its "call to commemorate the social work of the Resistance" around the forbidden zone, like FO, the PCF, an intersyndicale de l'éducation and other organizations.
The demonstration brought together people with different profiles and of all ages: trade unionists displaying their flags, people with saucepans - which have become a symbolic object of the protests against the pension reform -, a few dozen young people dressed all in black.
The parade had started in a good-natured atmosphere around 2 p.m. in front of barriers erected by the police. They then had to use tear gas several times to push back the demonstrators trying to enter the prohibited perimeter. Around 5 p.m., the demonstrators had gathered in a square not far from the edge of the perimeter and began to disperse.
“This police apparatus is undemocratic. Here we reach a limit. It's contemptuous for the people, ”protested Charlotte Abalé Gnahoré, 36-year-old costume designer and contract teacher, also protesting against the recently adopted pension reform. "Macron's policy goes against what the resistance fighters fought for and died for. It's a shame for our country and for democracy," she said. "Macron doesn't want to see us, he told the cops: throw them out, throw them out. He has no empathy,” protested 59-year-old bus driver Cathy Smadja.
"May 8: To commemorate the resistance is to defend its conquests!" Hands off our pensions! proclaimed one of the many banners unfurled by the demonstrators, whose procession continued to skirt the forbidden zone when the president arrived at the Montluc memorial shortly after 3 p.m.
