Thousands of people across France have taken to the streets to voice their protest against a newly proposed labor reform. Some rallies took a violent turn with police deploying tear gas to disperse and dozens reported injured.
10 April 2016
Hundreds of people have staged a protest in front of the residence of French PM Manuel Valls, BFMTV reported. The demonstrators were then blocked by police forces, who deployed tear gas against them.
"Paris, rise up," chanted the demonstrators.
At least eight people have been arrested "for throwing stones, carrying prohibited weapons, burglary and vandalism" during the Paris protests, the city council said.
09 April 2016
At least 8,000 people gathered in the streets of Toulouse.
Demonstrations against the labor reform are also take place in the city of Lille, local media reported.
RT UK’s camerawoman Hulya Sen has sustained an injury in her leg while covering the protests in Paris.
"She was filming and she says some kind of explosive device was thrown and it exploded near her foot and she has a bleeding leg,” RT’s Anastasia Churkina reported from Paris.
Churkina said Hulya was all right. The explosive device was apparently thrown by a protester, she added.
RT France correspondent Kyrill Kotikov-Convenant, who is live-feeding the event through Periscope in Paris, has got caught in tear gas.
“Still no fear” and “Democracy, where are you?” is written on demonstrators’ banners in Paris.
Other banners read “For life without war” and “Stop the [labor reform] project.”
In Nantes, demonstrators have broken the windows of a local shop and set it on fire, while tear gas has also been deployed.
According to the city council the rally has gathered 2,600 people. But trade unions claim that at least 15,000 activists are taking part in the demo.
The protesters in Nantes have been throwing stones, eggs and firecrackers at police, AFP reports.
About 15,000 people have taken to the streets of Toulouse, according to local press.
Tear gas has been deployed against a massive rally in Paris denouncing the recently proposed labor reform. Hundreds of protesters were seen marching through the streets of Paris, some of them setting off firecrackers.
The protest in the French capital started on Place de la Nation, the same spot where previous anti-labor rallies took place. A heavy police presence has been reported in the area.
From 2,000 to 8,000 people have taken to the streets of the French capital, AFP reports, citing the rally’s organizers.
At least 150 people gathered for a protest in the city of Caen.
The hashtag #OnVautMieuxQueCa (It will be better than this) has been launched on social media together with #NuitDebout.
Tear gas has been deployed in downtown Orleans Street in Rennes, Rennes24 TV reported. According to the channel, at least 22 activists were wounded, with six of them receiving serious injuries.
The nationwide rally, Nuit Debout (Rise Up at Night) has got over 50,000 “likes” on Facebook in less than 10 days.
Nuit Debout has also launched a petition which calls on everyone to support the movement.
“These peaceful, open and popular gatherings aim at reinvesting the public space to exchange, discuss and build something together,” said the petition, which has been signed by over 38,000 people.
At least two police officers have been injured during clashes with the demonstrators in Rennes, northwestern France, Ouest-Franc newspaper said.
“I'm here because I'm an old Republican. The first article [of the proposed reform] states that human rights are subject to the interest of employers. This is unacceptable. The law also creates inequalities at the enterprise level,” Gerard, a local worker in Rennes, told Ouest-Franc newspaper.
March was a month of protests in France with demonstrations continuing into April. On social media, the rallies come with the hashtags #mars (March). Saturday rally is hashtagged #mars40 (March 40) – meaning, jokingly that April 9 is actually March 40.
Between 2,000 and 8,000 people are staging a demonstration in the northwestern city of Rennes, local media reports said. The rally was also called by a Facebook Community dubbed Nuit Debout a Rennes (Rise Up At Night in Rennes).