Paris (AFP)

Thousands of people demonstrated Thursday for employment and the defense of public services, at the call of the CGT in particular, from Marseille to Paris where the procession started around 2:30 p.m., AFP journalists noted.

Behind a head banner displaying "jobs, salaries, working time, pensions ... let's revive the social", the demonstrators, numbering 20,000 according to the CGT, left the Place de la République in the direction of that of the Nation.

This event is one of some 165 initiatives identified throughout France by the organizers with, alongside the CGT, Solidaires, the FSU and several youth organizations.

"We are in a dynamic which may seem slow in a period when everything is complicated" but the demonstration is "the tip of the iceberg in terms of social anger", judged Simon Duteil (Solidaires).

For Benoit Teste (FSU), "the government relies on (a) discourse of common sense, but it is not true: it makes choices that will hamper the future. We see it on students, hospitals ... ".

"The students cannot eat, find accommodation, heat themselves, we are in an extreme situation", declared for her part Mélanie Luce, president of the UNEF, calling for "answers to our psychological distress".

Other demonstrations had taken place from the morning, as in Nantes where the organizers counted 2,500 participants (1,700 according to the police) and where the demonstration started with a "die-in": several people stretched out on the ground while one person chanted on the megaphone "general alert, culture is dying".

"Winter is coming. It is very cold in the colleges and high schools of the National Education because with Blanquer, it is the dèche", denounced a union activist in the ranks of the demonstration of Marseille, who gathered 2,800 people according to the police headquarters.

In Rennes, they were 1,500 according to the CGT (1,100 according to the police), with cries of "down with capitalism", or even "no dismissal, increase in all salaries".

FO flags, which did not call to join this day, adorned the procession of Rennes.

burs-sl-rbo-cel / bfa / zl

© 2021 AFP