At least 171 people were arrested during riots in Paris on Monday, coinciding with the approval in the National Assembly of the pension reform.
The opposition denounces the arrest of peaceful demonstrators, including politicians from La France Insoumise.
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of central Paris on Monday, knocked over garbage containers, set them on fire, and looted stores in the most emblematic commercial streets of the French capital, according to the French press.
The police deployed BRAV-M riot police who chased those responsible for this havoc in Montmartre, Opera, and Louvre.
The demonstrators chanted anti-capitalist slogans, while the violent ones caused significant material damage.
The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has called for an “immediate halt to the arrests”.
“Tonight, dozens of peaceful people were arrested violently and arbitrarily. Among them are Emma Fourreau, co-responsible for Young Insubmissives, and Laurent Abrahams, activist of La France Insoumise. We demand the immediate cessation of arrests and the release of the prisoners!” posted Mélenchon on Twitter.
“Macron and his government will never have enough police cells to stop the righteous anger of an entire people!” added congresswoman of La France Insoumise Mathilde Panot.
PROTESTS IN OTHER CITIES
The mobilizations have been reproduced in many other French cities.
In Marseilles, a hundred demonstrators tried to storm the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône.
The police intervened to stop them, and the situation is currently calm.
In Toulouse, the situation is tense, with demonstrators burning garbage containers, while in Bordeaux, police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
In Bordeaux and Lille, police have also intervened with tear gas and other anti-riot means to disperse the protest. In Montpellier, barricades have been erected in the vicinity of the prefecture.
In Nancy, a hundred of them destroyed street furniture. Garbage containers were overturned. Protests also took place in Dijon and Strasbourg.
In Rennes, the capital of Brittany, between 300 and 500 people have gathered and set fire to several areas in the center of the town in front of a large police deployment that has resulted in at least two arrests.
There are calls on social networks to block bus stations from five o’clock on Tuesday morning.
With information from LGI
Read More from The Rio Times