Entering its third month, the protest in the street against the reform gathered Thursday between 1.089 million demonstrators (Interior) and 3.5 million (CGT) for its 9th day of mobilization.

The 49.3 decided by the government and the intervention Wednesday of the President of the Republic have not cooled the ardor of the opponents.

Aurélie Thieffry, 35, extracurricular animator in Finistère, said Thursday in the Brest procession convinced to be able to push back the executive: "it will be complicated but with a little organization, it is possible to get there".

"We feel that there is an extremely strong momentum of the population, a public opinion that is largely convinced and so as long as there is a timetable that allows us to act, we are mobilized," commented Marylise Léon, N.2 of the CFDT at the end of the inter-union which gave another appointment Tuesday to the demonstrators and strikers, with local union rallies this weekend.

The unions, reassured by the figures of the mobilization, were also enraged by processions where young people obviously came in greater numbers.

Anything but a surprise as his eruption had been predicted since the beginning of the mobilization. The violence, which had so far been only sporadic, has also made a spectacular entry into the game between the government and the unions.

Door of the town hall of Bordeaux burned, "scenes of chaos" denounced by the mayor of Rennes, water cannons in Lille and Toulouse, demonstrator with a thumb torn off in Rouen, police station targeted in Lorient (Morbihan) etc. The violence has escalated. Almost everywhere in the metropolises. "Unacceptable," said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

Protesters flee tear gas fire on the sidelines of a demonstration against pensions on March 23, 2023 in Paris © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP

No way out

In Paris, violence broke out at the head of the demonstration with their share of broken windows and destroyed street furniture, and incidents continued in the evening in the wake of so-called "wild" processions. Contrary to a march where the vast majority of demonstrators marched peacefully.

Garbage fires, sirens and flashing lights streaked on a night when clusters of protesters played cat and mouse with the police.

Dockers block the entrance to the port of Lorient, in western France, on March 22, 2023 © FRED TANNEAU / AFP

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reported 172 arrests in France, and 149 wounded in the ranks of the police, according to a provisional assessment given around 22:00. The Paris police prefecture reported 103 people arrested in the capital.

Mr. Darmanin denounced the violence of "thugs often from the extreme left".

The strategy of the executive, "it is a minority strategy to rot a social movement and to scare people by using violence, and I dare to speak of police violence," according to Catherine Perret, confederal secretary of the CGT.

Catherine Perret, Confederal Secretary of the CGT, speaks at a press conference in Montreuil, March 16, 2023 © Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

The anti-basin mobilizations in the Deux-Sèvres this weekend and the arrival of King Charles III next week in France in the midst of a social crisis promise in any case a sacred challenge for an executive determined to play order.

The latter remains inflexible on its reform. Emmanuel Macron, who was Thursday in Brussels for a European summit had, the day before, defended tooth and nail a reform "necessary" for public finances, assuming his "unpopularity".

At the end of this new episode of a conflict from which neither side seems to seek a way out, left-wing politicians on Thursday invited the French to further amplify the protest against the pension reform, Fabien Roussel calling to "put the country at a standstill", and Jean-Luc Mélenchon to "throw all forces into the battle".

For Marine Le Pen, unfortunate finalist of the last presidential election, "Emmanuel Macron can no longer govern alone, he must now return to the people".

© 2023 AFP