Unlike the previous three days of protest, no day of national strike was declared, although air traffic controllers at Paris’ second airport staged a surprise strike that caused the cancellation of half of the flights.
Emmanuel Macron and his government face a double battle to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, overcoming resistance both on the streets and in parliament as they attempt to pass legislation.
The trade union federation CGT said 500,000 people protested in Paris alone, and more than 2.5 million across the country. The interior ministry, which usually gives much lower numbers, said there were 963,000 protesters across the country and 93,000 in the capital. The numbers were slightly higher than the last day of the protest, Tuesday.
There were protests in other cities across the country, with television images showing police using water cannons in the city of Rennes.
Protesters in the French capital took the traditional protest route from Place de la République to Place de la Nation, behind a banner reading: “No more work!”
Tensions arose when a car and a rubbish bin were overturned and set on fire, prompting police and firefighters to intervene.
The march was led by the leaders of France’s eight main trade unions, who maintained a close unity that the government has been unable to break.
The unions said in a joint statement they would call for a national strike that would “paralyze France” on March 7 if the government “remains deaf to popular mobilization”.
Another day of protests and strikes is scheduled for March 16. The text of the bill must be presented to the Senate on March 7.
The CGT union leader, Philippe Martinez, said that “the ball is in the court of the president and the government to determine whether the movement intensifies and hardens or whether they take the current mobilization into account”.
Laurent Berger, secretary general of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), a more moderate group that the government had hoped would take a different line, said the timetable would give the government time to react.
Air traffic controllers at Paris Orly Airport went on strike unannounced, resulting in the cancellation of half of flights from Paris’ second airport in the afternoon.
And in a move that threatens to have dire consequences, the unions representing workers in the RATP public transport system in Paris have called for a continuous strike from March 7. ruthless, unjust and unjustified reforms,” they said.
Speaking in Brussels last week, Macron urged unions to show “a sense of responsibility” and “not block life in the rest of the country”.
Macron’s governing party also faces the challenge of getting the legislation through parliament, where it lost its majority in last year’s elections. It needs the support of the right-wing opposition to avoid resorting to a potentially explosive constitutional measure that would allow legislation to be passed without a vote.
“I have doubts about Macron, his ability to move, to listen to the people,” said Alfonso Gimeno, a pensioner, who traveled to Paris to demonstrate with his three children, aged 9, 13 and 15.
Source: DN
