The meeting had been set for 2 p.m., on Place Jean Macé, in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon by the Lyon Fight Committee. “It seems important to us to pace the movement [contre la réforme des retraites] between now and the next inter-union day on June 6,” noted the organizers. But this Friday morning, the Rhône prefecture announced that it had issued an order to ban the demonstration.
She justifies this decision “taking into account the calls for participation of radical elements at the origin for several weeks of heavy degradations of businesses and significant injuries of national police officers, targets of numerous throwing of projectiles”.
Last Monday, during the demonstration on May 1, “2,000 individuals at risk, including 1,000 black blocks” were posted at the head of the procession destroying street furniture and certain businesses in their path. In total, sixty-six people were arrested after the numerous degradations in the city, on the sidelines of the demonstration against the pension reform.
“Attempts to intimidate the prefecture will not work,” reacted the Lyon Fight Committee this Friday morning, specifying that it “would not let this draconian ban pass with folded arms”. The organizers of the demonstration then announced “to launch an interim release to the administrative court to try to counter the prefectural strategy”.