"This reform is unacceptable and goes against the interests of the population", repeated the eight trade union centers Thursday evening in front of the press.

For them, "the message is very clear: the government must renounce" the postponement of the legal retirement age "from 62 to 64 years and the "acceleration" of the extension to 43 years of the duration of contribution.

On Thursday, many demonstrators pounded the pavement, mostly calmly despite some clashes, kicking off the protest against this decried reform.

“More than two million” people demonstrated in more than 200 processions in France, including around 400,000 in Paris, said the CGT, while the Interior Ministry counted 1.12 million demonstrators, including 80,000 in the capital city.

A level of mobilization higher than that of December 5, 2019: at the start of the protest against the previous pension reform project, the police had counted 806,000 demonstrators in France, the CGT 1.5 million.

Throughout France, well-stocked processions have shown a "no" to the decline in the legal age of departure, against a backdrop of widespread social discontent in a context of inflation.

Demonstrators against the pension reform are gathered in Place de la Bastille in Paris on January 19, 2023 © Thomas SAMSON / AFP

"It is a completely unfair reform and which strongly disadvantages the working classes", for example denounced Damien Mathieu, 36, an IT employee in Toulouse.

"Renewable strike"

Laurent Quéré, 42, carpenter and roofer, fears he will be "broken" at 64.

"Already at 40, we feel body pain on a daily basis," he explained, parading through the streets of Brest.

The petition launched last week by the eight unions against a pension reform deemed "unfair and brutal" crossed the threshold of 600,000 signatures on Thursday.

The Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, admitted that the mobilization had been "important".

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne hailed the "good conditions" in which the demonstrations took place.

"Let's continue to debate and convince," she pleaded on Twitter.

Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt leaves the Elysée Palace in Paris on January 18, 2023 © Ludovic MARIN / AFP

From school to transport, many sectors were affected on Thursday.

Around 45% of SNCF and EDF employees were on strike.

If the number of strikers was greater than in 2019 at EDF, whose employees risk losing their special pension scheme, the mobilization was less at the SNCF, where his has already been closed to new entrants since 2020.

"This strike is the fuel, the engine of the mobilization. So why not (...) the renewable strike?", Launched Thursday morning Fabien Villedieu, Sud-Rail delegate at Gare de Lyon.

On the refinery side, the movement was followed by 70 to 100% of TotalEnergies employees depending on the site.

Fuel shipments were blocked, but work was to resume Friday morning, unless otherwise decided at any local general meetings.

Pensions: the contribution period according to age © Sylvie HUSSON / AFP

The direction of EDF, she counted 50% of strikers Thursday on its total workforce.

A figure up from the first – and the most followed – of the days of action against the project for a universal pension system by points.

Eyes are now riveted on certain strategic sectors such as energy and transport and their ability to engage, through the renewable strike, a standoff with the executive.

© 2023 AFP