"Nearly 80,000 participants" and 160 rallies and demonstrations were recorded by the CGT, which called for demonstrations with the FSU, Solidaires, Unsa and several high school organizations.

The Ministry of the Interior counted 165 events for 30,800 participants throughout France, including 3,200 in Paris.

As for public officials, the call for mobilization seemed to be poorly followed, with a rate of strikers "less than 2% at noon" in the state civil service, according to the ministry.

Few disruptions were observed in transport, except in the east of France where only one out of two TGVs traveled to Strasbourg, Reims and Metz/Nancy.

The RATP unions are reserving their forces for a one-day strike on March 25.

"Record year for profits"

In Paris, the procession - with distended ranks - set off at the beginning of the afternoon from the Place de la République towards Chaussée d'Antin-La Fayette, behind a banner: "Let us demand an increase in wages, pensions and social minima".

"We urgently need to increase salaries", pleaded the number one of the CGT Philippe Martinez, worrying about the "little music in the face of the dramatic events and the war in Ukraine" on the difficulties experienced by companies.

He noted that "2021 has (was) a record year for big business profits, dividends paid to shareholders", despite the Covid-19 crisis.

Demonstration in Nantes to demand a salary increase on March 17, 2022 Loic VENANCE AFP

As for the civil servants, he pleaded – after the announcement on Monday of the thaw of the index point “before the summer” – for the catch-up “to be at the level of the losses accumulated for 12 years”, estimating that the agents have lost "at least 10%".

Same "emergency" pointed out by representatives of other unions, Guillaume Trichard, deputy secretary general of Unsa evoking an "explosive" situation.

The processions brought together some 800 people in Clermont-Ferrand according to the CGT, between 550 (according to the police) and a thousand (unions) in Rennes, and nearly a thousand also in Lyon, according to the police.

In Dijon, they were only a hundred.

The war in Ukraine "crushes a lot of things. It's difficult", admitted Fabian Clément (FSU).

They were 300 to parade in Besançon and Perpignan, a few hundred in Toulouse, half a thousand in Strasbourg and around 700 in Lille according to the prefecture.

The police counted 600 demonstrators in Bordeaux and the CGT 2,000.

"A Bit of Happiness"

In the Paris procession, in which the candidates Fabien Roussel (PCF) and Philippe Poutou (NPA) took part, a speaker at the microphone shouted his "support for Ukrainian workers".

Some said they were "concerned".

Sabrina, 32, a bus driver at Transdev, notes that "the cost of daily living is increasing significantly, but wages are not".

Demonstrators in Nantes on March 17, 2022 for a salary increase Loic VENANCE AFP

With the Ukrainian conflict, inflation, measured by INSEE at 3.6% over one year in February, could accelerate further.

The minimum wage could therefore experience a new automatic revaluation of at least 2% in the coming months.

The mobilization was held with the participation of Unsa, absent from previous days, but without the Force Ouvrière confederation, yet present in January.

It's "a pity", judged the head of Solidaires Simon Duteil, who pleads for "the widest possible unity".

Emmanuel Macron's announcement on pensions - he wants to raise the legal age to 65 if he is re-elected - added to the reasons for anger on Thursday.

"Retirement at 60 is not debatable, retirement at 65 we don't want it!", We heard in the Parisian procession, more or less at a time when Emmanuel Macron confirmed his project during a conference. television press.

In the Lille demonstration, Didier Hurblain (CGT) judged that "going up to 65 is going to be hard".

"When you reach 60 you deserve to have a little bit of happiness," says this butcher.

This subject should also animate the 1st of May, towards which the union leaders are already planning.

A demonstration of trade union organizations of retirees is also planned for March 24.

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© 2022 AFP