Nine people were arrested for damage and use of smoke bombs on the police while three people were injured, according to the latest report from the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine. The demonstrators – 400 in number according to the police -, to which were added young radical activists, first met in the middle of the morning, with firecrackers and smoke bombs, on the Charles-de-Gaulle esplanade, where they were to initially stay.
The memory of the fire of the Parliament of Brittany
Around 11 a.m., they left in the direction of the Parliament of Brittany, generating strong tensions with the police who were trying to push them back from the historic center with tear gas and water cannons. “The 400 demonstrators departing from the declared place of demonstration and throwing projectiles at the police, they had to use tear gas”, indicated the prefecture, which underlines the “risk of starting fire due to the “multiple firing of red rockets” by the demonstrators.
Rennes remains marked by the fire of the Parliament of Brittany on February 5, 1994, after a violent demonstration of sailors-fishermen. The fire had smoldered for several hours after the firing of a distress rocket, which went unnoticed, before igniting the roof of the building and ravaging it.
On Wednesday, during the demonstration, a tractor driven by a demonstrator who jumped on the march, continued its course towards the water truck before being stopped by the police, an impressive scene which was particularly relayed on the social networks. “A tractor sent against the CRS and the water launcher was seized by the police,” said the prefecture.
This demonstration of fishermen aims to denounce “the regulations and the persecution of the direction of maritime affairs”, while the Council of State ordered Monday to close certain fishing areas in the Atlantic in order to protect dolphins. “We are very upset against the decision of the Council of State. If we cannot go to these areas for four months, we can sell the boat, ”said Ludovic, 51, fisherman in Lorient (Morbihan). “The first claim is the price of diesel and also the lack of listening from professional structures and the State”, declared David le Quintrec, fishing boss in Lorient.
