After the rejection by 9 votes of a first cross-partisan motion of censure once morest the French government and its pension reform, the far-right motion only received 94 votes out of the 287 necessary. The left like the RN group have already announced referrals to the Constitutional Council, which will have to decide before the promulgation of the highly contested reform project.
Some 250 parliamentarians, mainly from the left, are also calling for a shared initiative referendum (RIP) to “affirm that the legal retirement age cannot be set beyond 62”. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne had unleashed the constitutional weapon of 49.3 on Thursday to pass the highly contested reform without a vote, not being sure of obtaining a majority.
Tensions in the streets of France
Monday evening, overturned and burned trash cans, barricades, throwing projectiles at the police, and smoke bombs marked some of the demonstrations that erupted spontaneously across France following the adoption of the reform.
The same scenes of tension were reproduced in several large cities, such as Lyon, Nantes, Rennes, or Strasbourg where some 2,000 people demonstrated, according to the prefecture.
“It’s going to blow up,” chanted the demonstrators in Lille. “Louis XVI we beheaded him, Macron we will start once more”.
In Donges (Loire-Atlantique), the police intervened overnight from Monday to Tuesday to unblock the oil terminal, occupied for a week by strikers, noted an AFP photographer on the spot.
A source close to the strikers contacted by AFP before the end of the intervention reported “clashes” during the night.
In Paris, shortly following 12:30 a.m., 171 people were arrested in Paris, according to a police source.
“Arbitrary” police custody strongly criticized
Demonstrators held for several hours at the police station, then released without any prosecution: with the spontaneous rallies once morest 49.3, lawyers, magistrates and politicians denounce “arbitrary” police custody, seeing it, as in other mobilizations in recent years, as a “repression of the social movement”.
Three percent: of the 292 people placed in police custody on the sidelines of the first spontaneous gathering on Thursday, Place de la Concorde, marred by incidents, only nine were presented to the prosecution, in particular for reminders of the law. 283 procedures were closed without further action, for insufficiently characterized infringement or absence of infringement.
The next day, 60 people were placed in police custody: 34 procedures were closed, 21 led to alternative measures (reminder of the law, probationary warning, etc.) and five to a trial.
“It was really all kinds of profiles: students at the ENS, doctor, homeless, minors, trade unionists, teachers, people who came out of a conference and who were nasses”, described for AFP Me Coline Bouillon, one of the lawyers who assisted the demonstrators.
The people were placed in police custody for “participation in a group with a view to preparing violence”, or “concealment of the face” and remained 24 or 48 hours in police custody, said the lawyer, who speaks of “police custody-sanctions”, with “irregular records”, “empty in terms of proof of guilt”.
A group of lawyers of which she is a member intends to file a collective complaint for “arbitrary detention” and “obstructing the freedom to demonstrate”.
In a press release, the Syndicate of the Judiciary (SM), classified on the left, also denounced Monday these numerous placements in police custody, seeing it as a “repression of the social movement”.
“There is an instrumentalization of criminal law by the political power, in order to dissuade the demonstrators from demonstrating and exercising this freedom”, also believes Me Raphaël Kempf, who underlines the absence of “reparation” or “apology” .
Several left-wing politicians, such as the LFI deputies Ugo Bernalicis and Mathilde Panot or the deputy mayor of Paris David Belliard have criticized “arbitrary arrests”.
