PROTESTS: More than 300 people were arrested on Thursday and Friday following clashes at Place de la Concorde, where people had gathered to demonstrate against the pension reform
Gatherings in Place de la Concorde, as well as on the Champs-Elysées, were banned on Saturday by the Paris police headquarters. The day before and the day before, in Paris, thousands of people had gathered there in the evening, a few hundred meters from the National Assembly and the Elysée, not without clashes.
Opposition to the reform took a more radical turn on Thursday, with 10,000 people gathered in the square and 258 people arrested. On Friday, 4,000 people were present and 61 were arrested, according to the Paris police headquarters.
One of the places of execution during the Revolution
“Due to serious risks of disturbances to public order and safety (…) any gathering on the public thoroughfare place de la Concorde and its surroundings as well as in the sector of the avenue des Champs-Élysées is prohibited” , the prefecture told AFP. “People who try to gather there will be systematically ousted by the police” and may be fined, the same source added.
Saturday morning, around fifty activists protested against the arrests, in front of the police station of the 1st arrondissement of the capital.
The Place de la Concorde, the largest in Paris, is at the foot of the Avenue des Champs-Elysées and contains the Obelisk of Luxor. It is known in particular for having been one of the places of execution during the French Revolution.
