In France, 150,000 people, according to the organizers, marched in the streets of Paris this Saturday afternoon to protest against the pension reform. A new mobilization after the demonstrations…

France: new march against pension reform at the call of the LFI party

Audio 01:15

Participants in the demonstration this Saturday, January 21, 2023 in Paris, against the pension reform proposed by the government.

AFP - THOMAS SAMSON

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

In France, 150,000 people, according to the organizers, marched in the streets of Paris this Saturday afternoon to protest against the pension reform.

A new mobilization after the monster demonstrations on Thursday, at the call this time of youth organizations.

Part of the Nupes, rebels in the lead, supported the march, two days before the presentation of the bill in the Council of Ministers.

The left is counting on the youth for the future.

Report by Pierrick Bonno.

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They come from Rennes, Tours, Lyon.

They are still very far from retirement age, but they wanted to march against this reform in the streets of Paris.

Noé is a first-year law student, he demonstrates under the banner of the Union Pirate union "

to demand the withdrawal of this villainous reform

For the most tiring trades, it is to increase misery.

A delay in retirement is a disadvantage for young people who want to enter the world of work.

At the head of the procession, several Insoumis deputies and ecologists surround Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

A short distance from the Place de la Nation, the former presidential candidate takes the microphone to harangue the crowd.

And he speaks directly to Emmanuel Macron.

Be cursed for wanting to turn everything into commodities!

Dirty everything, spoil everything, reduce everything!

Long live life, down with death!

Enough to fuel the trial in political recovery that his opponents make him.

But it doesn't matter, according to the young people we meet.

I wouldn't call it recovery.

I think it's just the movement coming together.

I don't understand, because the purpose of trade unions is to obtain social rights, such as political parties.

Me, I think it's relevant, because it brings people back.

And the more people there are in the street, the more we are heard.

Part of the left calls on high school and university students to step up their movement.

By blocking actions in their establishments in particular.

►Also listen: This pension project "is not compulsory from an economic point of view", according to Manuel Bompard

Movement against pension reform: political recovery?

Since the announcement of the pension reform, La France insoumise has been trying to appear at the forefront of the challenge to the bill.

Because after several weeks of turmoil within the party due to the Quatennens affair and the lack of internal democracy denounced by some, we now hope to leave the divisions aside to unite against the reform.

The date of the march this Saturday had also been chosen before the call for the mobilization of the unions for January 19.

The objective of LFI is that the gatherings multiply everywhere in France every week and every weekend.

Youth organizations and La France insoumise hope to broaden the protest to a wider audience with this new march.

The leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon was this time present in the Parisian procession, when he paraded in Marseille last Thursday.

But within the Nupes, this initiative is not unanimous.

The ecologists of EELV, the communists of the PCF and the socialists of the PS declined the invitation to demonstrate, as political formations, contrary to what had happened in October during the "march against expensive living" organized by the mélenchonistes, which had drained 140,000 participants according to the organizers, 30,000 according to the police.

France: new march against pension reform at the call of the LFI party

France: new march against pension reform at the call of the LFI party

Movement against pension reform: political recovery?

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