Pensions: 740,000 demonstrators in France this Tuesday according to the Interior, more than 2 million according to the CGT

Europe 1 with AFP 19:57 p.m., March 28, 2023

Opponents of the pension reform were less numerous in the streets Tuesday for a tenth day of action at the call of the unions who demanded a "mediation", rejected by the government but supported by its allies of the MoDem. Five days after a burst of mobilization, the figures of the authorities as well as the unions attest to a declining participation: the Ministry of the Interior has counted 740,000 demonstrators throughout the France, including 93,000 in Paris, the CGT "more than 2 million" including 450,000 in the capital.

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As last week, clashes between demonstrators and police broke out in several cities, while violence around the basin of Sainte-Soline in the Deux-Sèvres, during the weekend, was still in everyone's heads. In Paris, where 10,000 controls took place around the procession, a Leclerc business was looted and several garbage fires lit before the arrival at Place de la Nation. The police prefecture reported 27 arrests shortly before 19 p.m.

Scuffles in the provinces

Tensions also in Dijon, Lyon, Lille and Toulouse, where the police used water cannons. Nantes, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Besançon and Nancy also experienced clashes. Fearing these incidents, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had deployed an "unprecedented security device": 13,000 police and gendarmes, including 5,500 in the capital. "The France is not conducted with trique," replied the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, calling his troops to "coolness".

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was closed, as was the Arc de Triomphe or the Palace of Versailles. On the other hand, among Parisian garbage collectors, the CGT announced the suspension of the strike and the blockade of incinerators from Wednesday, while 6,600 tons of waste still litter the streets of the capital. If teachers were less mobilized (8% of strikers according to the ministry), dozens of blockades of universities, high schools and even colleges were identified, from Avignon to Le Havre, from Lille to Bordeaux.

The mobilization of young people, monitored like milk on fire by the authorities, also slowed down: they were 400,000 in the street according to the claims of the Unef, against 500,000 on March 23. But their determination remains intact, like the Lille student Siméon Ronzier, 20 years old: "I am still very young but the reaction of the government, the 49.3, the fact of seeing that the people are not listened to, that's what made me want to fight."