Some of these actions have been overshadowed by incidents across France. In Paris, several hundred people, including deputies from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France insoumise (LFI) party, first gathered near the National Assembly on Place Vauban, then headed for the city center before to be arrested on the orders of the guards. . Opposition politicians have accused Macron of arrogance, rejection of democracy and failure to learn from the anti-government yellow vest protest movement.
The Parisian police arrested 234 people on Monday evening, a police source told Le Figaro. Garbage bags and bins that are not removed from the streets of the city because of the garbage collectors’ strike, and clashes with the police took place in the Saint-Lazare station area, around the Place de l’Opéra . A motorcade then moved through the streets, knocking over trash cans, followed by police on motorcycles, and other protesters began to gather near City Hall.
The police repeatedly used tear gas. Around 11:00 p.m., the situation in Place de la Bastille and the adjacent streets worsened due to improvised barricades of trash cans and burning wooden pallets, reports Franceinfo. Police counted around 240 fires, including trash cans.
Other spontaneous demonstrations also took place in several major French cities. In Strasbourg, around a thousand demonstrators first gathered at Place Kléber in the city center, booing the rejection of the censure motion before lighting smoke bombs and chanting “We too will act with determination”. Objects in the city were damaged: the facade of the bank was damaged by cobblestones, advertising signs were broken. The prefecture of Strasbourg announced six arrests.
In Dijon, around 200 people came to demonstrate. The police made two arrests. About 500 demonstrators gathered in the center of Lyon around 8:30 p.m., mostly young people. The prefecture reports nine arrests and one minor injury among the police. In Saint-Étienne, the prefecture has identified four police officers detained and three injured. In Lille, demonstrators whistled and shouted in front of the prefecture. “Louis XVI, we beheaded him, Macron, we are going to start again”, they chanted.
In Rennes, between 300 and 500 young people marched through the city center. In Nantes, the police were bombarded with bottles, the police responded with tear gas. Other demonstrations took place in Bordeaux, Limoges, Poitiers and even in Rouen or Brest.
Macron, whose trust rating has fallen to a historic low of 28%, is scheduled to deliver a televised address to the nation on Wednesday at 1 p.m. local time.
Government insiders, opposition politicians and observers fear that France could see a new wave of spontaneous anti-government uprisings in towns and villages – not only because of the increase in the retirement age to 64 years, but also because of distrust in the political system, only a few years after the Yellow Vest movement rocked Macron’s first term. Some observers say one option for Macron in the coming weeks could be to replace Bourne and reshuffle the government to try to improve his image, the Guardian notes.
