Two motions of censure were tabled on Friday in an attempt to overthrow the government, the day after its decision to use 49.3 to pass the highly contested pension reform which triggered punch actions and demonstrations interspersed with a few incidents.
Several thousand people gathered in the evening at Place de la Concorde in Paris, a few hundred meters from the Assembly. A brazier was blazing, lit by demonstrators, and the atmosphere became tense at nightfall, according to AFP journalists.
Hundreds of people clashed with the police in small groups, throwing projectiles. Around 9:30 p.m. the place was completely evacuated. According to the police headquarters, 61 people were arrested there in the evening.
In Strasbourg, it was on Place Kléber that 1,600 protesters gathered. "We too will go through in force," chanted the demonstrators. The prefecture reported "degradation" in the city center, but no arrests.
In Lyon, demonstrators burst into a district town hall and started a fire, but the police quickly extinguished it and arrested 36 people, according to the prefecture.
Also in Lyon, a few hundred young people set fire to trash cans, overturned scooters, smashed billboards, threw firecrackers and tagged shop windows chanting: "Whose is it? Whose is it? It's ours !”, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. The police responded by using tear gas.
A thousand people marched in the center of Lille, and a procession of a few hundred demonstrators dispersed smoothly in Bordeaux.
The motions of censure should be examined in the National Assembly on Monday from 4 p.m., parliamentary sources told AFP, subject to validation just before the session.
In this climate of crisis, the small group Libertés, Indépendants Outre-mer et Territoires (Liot) filed a “transpartisan” motion of censure co-signed by elected officials from Nupes. The latter is more likely to be voted on by right-wing MPs unfavorable to pension reform. But the absolute majority bar to bring down the government seems difficult to achieve.
This Liot group, which has 20 deputies of various political tendencies, thus finds itself in a pivotal position.
"It's the return to the Fourth Republic, it's the smallest group that begins to have the most influence in a fragmented Parliament," lamented Macronist deputy Jean-René Cazeneuve.
The National Rally filed its own motion of censure. "And we will vote for all the motions of censure presented," said MP RN Laure Lavalette.
Blocking of the Paris ring road, Toulon or Bordeaux stations, strike at the Opéra de Lyon, demonstrations... opponents of raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 have resumed the fight sporadically Friday, most often at the initiative of the CGT.
The activation Thursday of Article 49.3 of the Constitution, which allows the adoption of a text without a vote, except for a motion of censure, was felt "as an insult. We have not been listened to for weeks, that generated a lot of anger," Philippe Melaine, SVT teacher at a public high school in Rennes, told AFP, where more than 2,000 people marched on Friday, including several hundred high school students.
In Bordeaux, on the rails or on the station platforms, waving their flags in the colors of the main unions, 200 people shouted: "Anger is rising".
"The 49.3 has tensed everyone," said Rémi Vinet, general secretary of the CGT Cheminots in Bordeaux, predicting that the strike would "spread to other sectors".
The CGT also announced the shutdown of the TotalEnergie refinery in Normandy this weekend.
Dispatched to the morning TV and radio mornings on Friday, government heavyweights tried to put out the fire. "We have a vocation to continue to govern," said spokesman Olivier Véran. Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt refused to present the use of 49.3 as "a failure".
But for the secretary general of the CFDT Laurent Berger, if President Emmanuel Macron wants to "extinguish the fire" of social anger, he must "withdraw the reform" or "do not promulgate it.
Thursday, 310 people had been arrested in France, including 258 in Paris, announced the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin denouncing "burnt effigies" in Dijon and "targeted prefectures".
At the same time, the inter-union called for "local local rallies" this weekend, as well as a 9th day of strikes and demonstrations on Thursday March 23.
The SNCF unions call for "maintaining the renewable strike" started on the 7th and "to act massively" next Thursday.
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03/18/2023 03:53:41 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
