FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Protests and hundreds of marches led to over 470 arrests. In Paris, clashes erupted around Gare du Nord...
Like Greece. In September 2015, Syntagma Square was set on fire by students and the Black Bloc. In September 2025, Les Halles was closed by "Bloquons tout", in a massive protest against Emmanuel Macron and the new government of Sébastien Lecornu that ended with a volley of tear gas.
It's Paris, but it feels like Athens. As the new prime minister took office in Matignon after the National Assembly's vote of no confidence in François Bayrou, the square was erupting with 550 demonstrations and 262 roadblocks, raising demands that were not just about health and education, but also demonstrating a complete lack of confidence in the Elysée Palace.
The numbers: 473 arrested across the country, 203 in the capital alone; 339 protesters spent the night in jail, 106 in Paris; 13 officers injured; 175,000 participants according to the Interior Ministry (although possibly as many as 250,000), including 80,000 students; a restaurant in Les Halles went up in flames, along with the facade of a building in central Paris, possibly due to inadvertent police intervention, as the Paris prosecutor admitted.
The most violent clash occurred at Gare du Nord, where protesters and infiltrated black bloc groups clashed with police: the train station was closed and traffic was at a standstill. At Chatelet, leaders of the French left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Mathilde Panot and Manuel Bompard, also joined the march.
Commuters and workers suffered the most disruption: rail traffic was disrupted by track blockages in Cherbourg and Valence. There were also reports of attempted break-ins at Paris' Gare du Nord station and "various malicious acts." Some 130 secondary schools were closed.
Not just Paris. In Nantes, garbage cans were set on fire in front of the city hospital. In Marseille, the numbers were high: 8,000 for the police, 13,000 for the organizers. Many businesses chose to close their doors to avoid damaging windows. In Lille, all social classes, including the middle classes and professionals, marched against Macron: the rally stretched for kilometers.
In Nice, the train station was closed for more than two hours, with hundreds of protesters (who blew soap bubbles at the police, as in Toulouse) chanting “Macron, resign” with all their might. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, said he was “proud” that his social network was being used by protesters criticizing Emmanuel Macron’s “failed policies.” “After being neglected for eight years, people are fed up with empty public statements and hypocritical stances,” he wrote on X.
CGT union leaders are pleased that thousands of workers have gone on strike in hospitals, at least 10,000 in the Department of Public Finance and 25% in the rail transport sector.
For the union, the success of yesterday's demonstration confirms "the country's social anger with the President of the Republic and the employers' strategy for permanent force". A repeated demonstration will take place within a week and the organizers promise even greater numbers. Just like in Greece. /Adapted from Il Giornale/
Lini një Përgjigje