New demonstration in front of the Assembly in Paris

BETTING À DAY

Some 2,500 demonstrators gathered on Friday evening at Place de la Concorde in Paris, like the day before, to protest against the pension reform and the use of Article 49.3, after several actions by high school and university students in the day.

The crowd swelled around 7 p.m., in an atmosphere that until then had been rather calm, according to AFP journalists.

Clara, 22, participated in all the demonstrations. “It's important to be there, I'm afraid the movement is running out of steam,” the student, who does not want to give her last name, told AFP.

< img class="aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/d2447cc78555644934d791ef30896f17.jpg" alt="New demonstration in front of the Assembly in Paris" />

• AFP

• AFP

< li class="caption">AFP

• AFP

< li class="caption"> AFP

• AFP

< li class="caption"> AFP

• AFP

A little earlier, some 200 people, mainly young people, had gathered in front of the police station in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, where two students arrested in the morning near Tolbiac were placed in police custody.

Across France, around fifteen university sites were blocked on Friday (Nanterre, Cassin center in Paris 1 or Mulhouse) and around twenty others occupied (Bordeaux Montaigne, Lyon 2, etc.), according to the L'Alternative student union, at the forefront of this movement.

In Paris, students gathered at the end of the morning in front of the Tolbiac site of the University of Paris 1, administratively blocked as a precaution, joined by others who had found themselves at Place de la Sorbonne.

The students (between 150 and 400 according to them) tried to organize an improvised demonstration to support the garbage collectors who were on strike at the incinerator in Ivry-sur-Seine, but the movement was quickly repressed by the police, they said.

Some high schools were also blocked on Friday, such as the Turgot and Henri-IV high schools in Paris.

“The principle of 49.3 is really undemocratic”, explained Raphaëlle, 16, in first class at Henri-IV, adding that “it is symbolic to make this blockade here today, because it was Macron's high school”.< /p>

“We managed to mobilize all the students. It really shows that there is a consensus, ”added Nina, 16, also in first in this high school.

Thursday, more than 1,600 young people had marched from the Sorbonne before joining other demonstrators place de la Concorde, not far from the National Assembly where Elisabeth Borne triggered article 49.3.