Lionel Gougelot (in Cambrai), edited by Laura Laplaud 08h03, March 28, 2023

Between 650,000 and 900,000 protesters are expected to take to the streets across France, according to intelligence. In Cambrai, the demonstration against the pension reform will start from one of the city's high schools. Objective for the inter-union: to illustrate the rise of youth in the movement.

Opponents of the pension reform are counting on a reinforcement of the youth to amplify the protest movement. In Cambrai, the demonstration will start from the Paul-Duez high school, where on Monday some teacher unionists have sensitized students to the day of action.

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"Pensions impact everyone"

Distributed at the end of high school, the few leaflets calling for mobilization are read with a rather distracted eye by most students, not all convinced of the usefulness of going to demonstrate for retirement. "If they block the school, I will go with them but for now, it is not in my plans," says this high school student at the microphone of Europe 1.

But for some, like Corentin, a high school student from Terminale, the start of the demonstration in front of his school is a good opportunity to swell the procession. "At the very beginning, when we started talking about pensions among ourselves, saying we were going to go, it didn't move too much. There, laughing, I said 'we're going tomorrow' and we were at least five or six to say that we were going to go. Pensions impact everyone and as we vote in the next elections, I think it's important to participate," he said.

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Young people join the mobilization

Young people who could give new impetus to the movement. "They are future employees, citizens in the making so they have their say," says Benoît Maréchal, CGT Education union. "The demonstration is an expression of democracy. On Cambrai, in the last demonstrations, the youth was more and more present but the bulk of the procession is still composed of employees."

These high school students will be supervised by trade unions that will ensure that the parade takes place without excesses.