The police intervened this morning in Paris to disperse two unauthorized marches as part of the mobilization against the high cost of living. At 11am the police prefecture reported 61 people stopped, 589 preventive checks and four fines. The first march, of a trade union nature, formed in the Gare du Nord area and reached rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, in the tenth arrondissement. According to the prefecture, around one hundred people took part, while AFP journalists observed around 200 demonstrators, some with their faces covered, facing the officers in riot gear.
The reactions of the police forces
The police used tear gas to push back the demonstration. At the entrance to the street, at Boulevard Magenta, the demonstrators chanted “We are all anti-fascists” and “Ahab”. A second group, made up of high school students, moved to the rue de Rennes area. Around 150 young people gathered at the Gare Montparnasse and took to the street shouting “Macron is waging war on us and so is his police”. The officers charged into rue du Vieux Colombier, blocking much of the group between buildings and a police cordon.