The French police prohibited this Saturday the concentrations in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, located in front of the National Assembly. The measure was taken after two nights of demonstrations against pension reform of President Emmanuel Macron.
“Due to the serious risks of disruption of public order and security (…) all gatherings on public roads in and around Place de la Concorde, as well as in the Champs-Elysees area, are prohibited”, the authorities reported. “People who try to gather there will be systematically evicted by the police”they added.
The crisis over the controversial reform entered a new stage on Thursday, when Macron decided to move forward with the reform bypassing the National Assembly, at the risk of a parliamentary defeat. The president made use of an article of the Constitution to bypass the legislative body.
Macron wants to bring the retirement age from 62 to 64 in 2023and intends to advance to 2027 the requirement of having 43 years of contributions, and not 42, to be able to access a full retirement.
The news that the French president would remove the rule by decree mobilized a large part of society, which took to the streets. On Friday night, 61 arrests were registered in the Plaza de la Concordia. The police repressed with tear gas. The day before, 10,000 people gathered and there were 258 arrests..