Yesterday, Saturday, the French capital, Paris, witnessed massive demonstrations against the government's draft, which is currently before Parliament, to amend the pension system, for the fourth time in less than a month.

And the retirement system, which is a basic project for President Emmanuel Macron, through which the French government seeks to extend the work period to address the financial deterioration of pension funds and the aging population, while the unions threaten to “paralyze” the country in confronting it if the government remains on its position.

The trade union "General Confederation of Labor" estimated the number of participants at more than 2.5 million people, including 500 thousand in Paris, at a time when the Ministry of the Interior stated that the number of demonstrators in various parts of France exceeded 950 thousand.

Clashes took place between the police and demonstrators who set fire to containers and vehicles in Paris, and the police used tear gas to disperse them.

According to the French police, the Paris demonstration witnessed the infiltration of between 200 and 400 members of the radical "Black Blox" movement, and about 2,000 activists of the yellow vest movement, and the Ministry of the Interior announced the arrest of 10 people.

One of the banners raised during the protests read, "Macron has suspended your accounts, we know you are stealing from us," while another read, "In order to refer the amendment to retirement."

A large banner raised during the Paris demonstration read, "We will not die at work," in a slogan that seems to reflect the mentality of the demonstrators who reject the essential measure in Macron's project to amend the retirement system, which stipulates delaying the retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

Before the start of the Parisian demonstration, trade union leaders confirmed the call for two additional mobilization days on February 16 and March 7, expressing their readiness to "intensify action" and "paralyze the country" if things remain as they are.

The "Parisian Transport Authority" also called for a strike on March 7.

The head of the reformist union, the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Bergé, had previously indicated that "exceeding the number of participants by one million would be a great success."

Clashes took place between police and demonstrators who set containers and vehicles on fire in Paris (Anatolia)

Security tightening

The authorities deployed 10,000 police and gendarmerie forces, including 4,500 in the capital, where accidents were recorded in the afternoon, including overturning and burning a car.

And 10 people were arrested in Paris, according to the police, and Gendarmerie was taken to hospital for treatment after he suffered an eye injury as a result of projectiles.

In Rennes (west), clashes were recorded between demonstrators and police officers at the end of the movement, and 22 people were arrested.

No strike was carried out, neither in the "National Railway Company" nor in the "Parisian Autonomous Transport Authority", but at Orly Airport, half of the flights were canceled due to a sudden strike by air traffic controllers.


This is the fourth time in a month that the French are called to strike and demonstrate in protest against the amendment currently being proposed to the National Assembly.

In the three previous movements, between 757 thousand and two million demonstrators participated on Tuesday, according to the authorities, compared to between 1.27 and more than 2.5 million on January 31, according to trade unions.

Trade union bodies were angered by a statement made by the French President on Friday in Brussels, in which he called on the organizers of the protest movements to continue to show a "responsible spirit."

And on Saturday, the official in the right-wing Republican Party, Xavier Bertrand, warned the government that its failure to take into account the demands of the French regarding retirement, if the amendment was approved, would lead to "a broader and more disturbing divorce between the French and those who rule us."

In Marseille, the leader of the radical left-wing "France of the Fatherland" party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stressed that Macron was "wrong in the country" if he was counting on a decline in the momentum of the protest movement.

Discussions about the text in the National Assembly have so far only resulted in repeated controversy and exchange of accusations.