Hundreds of thousands protest over pension reform in France
Hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets in France on Saturday in a fourth day of action against pension reform, a policy instituted by President Emmanuel Macron.
The demonstrations can be aggravated as unions are planning to embark on nationwide strikes if the plan is not dropped.
Local French media reports said unlike on the three previous protest days there was no call for a day of nationwide strikes.
It, however, specified that air traffic controllers at Paris’ second airport staged a surprise walkout that resulted in the cancellation of half of flights.
Macron and his government face a two-way fight to implement the plan to raise to pension age from 62 to 64 by overcoming resistance on the streets and also pushing the legislation through parliament.
The CGT union said that 500,000 people were protesting in Paris alone, higher than the 400,000 it counted on the last protest day on February 7.
The interior ministry, which generally give much lower numbers, said there were 963,000 protesters nationwide and 93,000 in Paris.
Most of the French cities were hit with the protests which forced police using water cannons in the western city of Rennes.
Protesters in the French capital took the traditional protest route from Republique Square to Nation Square, behind a banner saying: “No to working longer!”
There were tensions when a car and a bin were overturned and set on fire, prompting shield-wielding police and the fire brigade to intervene.
According to France 24, the demonstration was led by the leaders of France’s eight main unions, keeping up a tight unity that the government has so far been unable to break.
The unions said in a joint statement that they would call for a national strike that would “bring France to a standstill” on March 7 if the government “remained deaf to the popular mobilisation”.
Another day on protests and strike is planned on February 16.
The leader of the hardline CGT, Philippe Martinez, said “the ball is in the court of the president and the government to determine if the movement intensifies and hardens or if they take into account the current mobilisation.”
-vanguard news
