French police fired tear gas to disperse several thousand people who spontaneously gathered in Paris’ Place de la Concorde on Thursday night to protest pension reform after President Emmanuel Macron’s government announced it would take responsibility and the law would no longer go through parliament , BBC and News .ro report. The protests, which also broke out in other French cities, turned into violence, destroying shops and even a bank.

Police used tear gas and force to disperse the crowd, and some protesters threw cobblestones. According to Reuters estimates, about 7,000 people came to the Place de la Concorde, the square that is located directly in front of the parliament.

Rows of policemen with shields and batons advanced to the square, and after lighting a bonfire in the middle of the square, they used water cannons, the BBC reports.

After several hours of clashes, most of the protesters were evacuated from the Place de la Concorde by the CRS – the French police intervention team – but some protesters continued to stay and resist, throwing stones and firecrackers and lighting fires to block the streets. . Police said they had made 73 arrests, but the tally is preliminary and likely to rise.

The police chased a group of about a hundred demonstrators who, right in the center of the capital, knocked down all the garbage collected in piles on the streets due to the strike of garbage collectors. “Paris, get up!” the demonstrators shouted. Tourists, according to Le Figaro, were frightened by what was happening and tried to hide.

Spontaneous protests and violence also took place in several other French cities, including Marseille, and the police intervened. In Nantes, there was so much tear gas on the streets that people hid in bars.

In Marseille, Le Figaro reported that protesters smashed a bank window and shops were vandalized and looted.

The damage was caused mainly by groups of young people, sometimes wearing masks, who shouted “Down with the state, the police and the authorities”, “To hell with the bourgeois” or “We will blow everything up”, “Let’s set it on fire”. to everything”, “Marcel, on your feet, get up!” Demonstrators set fire to bins or trash containers and makeshift barricades before being dispersed by police using tear gas.

Scenes of chaos also took place in Lyon, where the town hall was pelted with stones by an unruly mob.

At least 1,000 people also protested in the northern city of Amiens, and clashes were reported between police and protesters in Dijon.

“A wild gathering of 700 young people, a hundred of whom are ultras, is currently causing damage to the city” of Rennes, the prefecture of Illes and Villeneuve announced in the evening. Around 7:00 p.m., several hundred young people gathered in St. Anne’s Square, in the historic center, and started setting fire. The police tried to extinguish them, and used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Demonstrators were extremely mobile and started several fires, damaged street furniture and a hotel, and used fireworks. “The windows of the town hall were damaged,” the prefecture said, adding that around 9 p.m. five people were detained “for throwing objects and violence.”

On the other hand, French unions have called for a new day of strikes and actions against the reform next Thursday, March 23.

The government’s use of the constitutional option to take responsibility and not pass the law through parliament – the so-called 49.3 procedure – could further anger unions, protesters and left-wing opposition parties, who I say the pension review is unfair and unnecessary.

Opinion polls show voters overwhelmingly oppose pension reform, as do unions, which say there are other ways to balance the pension system, including raising taxes on the wealthy.