Follow the demonstrations of this Thursday, March 23 in France live: after Emmanuel Macron's speech yesterday, a rebound in the protest is likely.
This Thursday, March 23, the demonstration organized in Paris must follow one of the traditional routes of the capital. Starting from the Place de la Bastille, the route includes a passage through the Place de la République, then through the boulevards Saint-Martin, Saint-Denis, Bonne Nouvelle, Poissonnière, Montmartre, des Italiens and finally Capucines. The arrival and dispersal of demonstrators must take place at Place de l'Opéra.
It is most often from the Old Port that the demonstrations start in Marseille towards the Porte d'Aix. The route must pass through the Mucem and the Place de la Joliette.
In Lyon, the demonstration of March 23 must leave as usual from the Manufacture des Tabacs to join the Place Bellecour, the place where the demonstrations organized during the week most often end. The path must pass through Saxe-Gambetta and Guillotière, take the eponymous bridge and reach Place Antonin-Poncet.
Will the March 23 protests end in clashes between protesters and the police? It is a fear justified by the images of spontaneous mobilizations which have multiplied in recent days. Photos and videos show charges by the authorities, in particular the motorized violent action repression brigade (BRAV-M) in Paris, and violent beatings of demonstrators. "The police intervene in a way... 'energetic', let's say, and sometimes indiscriminately", acknowledged Philippe Martinez in an interview with Le Monde on the eve of the ninth day of mobilization. Accusations of police violence have flared up on the side of left-wing elected officials who have denounced "abusive" interventions and arrests.
These muscular interventions would not however be expected in the processions of March 23, which will be organized and will follow routes determined and marked out by the authorities. According to the explanations of Johann Cavalero, national delegate of the Alliance union, guest on BFMTV, the violence and repression of the police would be a response to unexpected and unpredictable mobilizations: "The difference is that we don't "We have no interlocutors to prepare the route or to tell us what they want to do. So we adjust the system and we react to what is happening in front." In the eyes of the boss of the CGT, the more numerous and more violent interventions of the police are also an "old tactic" of the government which wants to "inflame things" "to discredit the movement, impress people, scare them and try to regain control of public opinion".
