The French Interior Ministry estimated about 380,000 protesters took to the streets in France this Thursday, on the 12th day of protest against the pension law, while the CGT union counted “more than 1.5 million”.
For both the authorities and trade unions, today’s protest appeared to be a setback in mobilization in most of the country’s cities, ahead of the long-awaited decision by the Constitutional Council on the legality of the diploma.
The revision of the pension law – a project promoted by the French President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, which raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 years without financial sanctions – was approved without a vote in the National Assembly, using a provision that in the French constitution that allows you to do so.
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) had initially announced in a communiqué “more than a million” participants in today’s protests, which would have been the lowest rate of entry claimed by the union federation since the start of the popular disputation movement. January 19.
His secretary-general, Sophie Binet, later released a new estimate, according to which “more than 1.5 million people” demonstrated across the country today against the increase in the retirement age and the number of years of paid career. financial sanctions.
The official numbers (about 380,000 demonstrators) represent the second weakest mobilization since the beginning of the movement, after that of March 11, estimated by authorities at 368,000 participants in the protests across the country.
Clashes between protesters and police in several cities
As in previous days, clashes with police were recorded in some French cities.
In Nantes (west), where between 10,000 and 25,000 people were on the streets (according to police and union data, respectively), protesters threw projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas grenades, according to reports from international agencies.
In Paris, demonstrators briefly stormed the headquarters of the French luxury brand group LVMH, in the famous Champs-Elysées district. Inside, protesters threw tobacco devices and chanted loud whistles.
The building of the Constitutional Council, located in the Palais Royal, in the heart of the French capital, was heavily guarded. Four arrests were made this morning in an attempt to block the building with containers and smoke bombs.
The Paris prefect of the police has now issued an order banning all demonstrations near the institution from this afternoon to early Saturday morning.
The French Constitutional Council (a Council of Wise Men, the equivalent of the Portuguese Constitutional Court) must rule on the constitutionality of the new pension law, approved using a constitutional provision and without a vote in parliament.
Under the various possible scenarios, the Board will be able to approve or reject the new pension law, which, among other things, provides for an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years without financial sanctions.
Source: DN
