French police arrested 217 people on Thursday night in incidents following a demonstration in Paris as part of ongoing mass protests against pension reform finally decided to pass without a vote in the lower house, media reported.

According to France Info, 217 people were arrested in the incidents that broke out on the Place de la Concorde in the center of the French capital.

According to the same source, riot police fired tear gas and pressurized water cannons to clear the area. Some protesters set fire to and threw objects at the police.

French media estimated that there were about 6,000 people in the square when the incidents began.

On Thursday afternoon, the government decided at the last minute to implement a pension bill that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, bypassing the lower house, as it was unclear whether the required majority had been won.

There is an article of the French Constitution (49, § 3) that allows you to follow this path. But the reform can be canceled in the event of a vote of no confidence in the government of President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Born.

Demonstrations were organized on Thursday in many other French cities (Marseille, Dijon, Nantes, Rennes, Rouen, Grenoble, Toulouse, Nice). Unions are calling you new national strike next thursday and mass mobilizations from the weekend. Millions of French people have repeatedly taken to the streets against the reform.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmamin ordered the police to take “increased protective measures” for members of the French Parliament.

Source: RES-IPE