Pensions: 14,000 demonstrators in Paris according to an independent count, 150,000 according to the organizers

Europe 1 with AFP 7 p.m., January 21, 2023

Thousands of people marched on Saturday afternoon in the cold in Paris against the pension reform, responding to the call of youth organizations but also of La France insoumise, wishing to maintain the flame of protest.

"Resistance!", "we are here, even if Macron does not want it": while the bill providing in particular for the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years must be presented Monday in the Council of ministers, a procession led by young people, but mixing all generations, walked between the places of the Bastille and the Nation without notable incident.

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We were far from the crowds observed during the day on Thursday, which had brought together between one and two million demonstrators throughout France according to estimates by the police or the CGT.

Claiming some 150,000 participants, the organizers can boast of having achieved their objective: to obtain a mobilization at least equal to that of the "march against the high cost of living" last October, organized by the mélenchonistes and which had drained 140,000 participants from 'after the instigators, 30,000 according to the police.

Other counts are however much more measured: 12,000 people according to a police source, 14,000 according to the cabinet Occurrence for a collective of media including AFP.

"We want to figure it out" 

In the crowd, Charlotte Lamorlette, 30-year-old director, and Chloé Kiskipour, 29-year-old actress, agree that "the more events the better".

"We are at the start of the movement, we must send a strong signal and encourage other people to come," they say, after having to skip Thursday's march because they were working.

"We are aware that it is our generation that will suffer the most from the effects of this reform. We have short contracts, it is difficult to fit into the labor market", proclaimed before the departure of the procession Camille Hachez , member of the Young Ecologists.

At his side, Zoé Lorioux-Chevalier, member of the Génération.s party, is on the move.

"We are revolted, we want to fight it out, we want to say that we will not be the sacrificed generation".

"The youth are fed up," she insists, during a press briefing where the role of La France insoumise was discussed, which, according to an internal source, was actively in charge of this march both in the organization than the funding.