In the capital, the procession will set off from the Place de l’Opéra. He must then reach the Place de la Bastille.
The French opposed to the pension reform are preparing to take to the streets for the twelfth time. This Thursday, on the occasion of the new national day of action, parades are planned in many cities in France. The unions hope to keep the pressure on the executive as well as on the Elders of the Constitutional Council, whose decision on the reform is expected the next day, at the end of the day.
In Paris, the participants will pound the pavement from the Place de l’Opéra – 9th arrondissement – to the Place de la Bastille – 11th arrondissement -, according to our information. They will go down the avenue de l’Opéra, and will pass on this occasion only a few steps from the Constitutional Council. They will then branch off onto the rue de Rivoli, and go up it passing in front of the Louvre, Châtelet, the Hôtel de ville, and will end in Bastille via the rue Saint-Antoine.
This route will therefore cross sensitive areas, passing right next to the Elders, in the middle of their work. The device of the authorities should therefore supervise the demonstration closely. The procession will also be guided by the white balloons of the CFE-CGC, followed by those, orange, of the CFDT.
The unions hope to once again gather a large crowd: in the capital, the last mobilization, on April 6, saw some 57,000 people march, a figure down sharply from the 93,000 demonstrators counted by the authorities on March 28. In Paris, the peak having been reached on March 23, with 119,000 demonstrators, according to the police. During the eleventh day of action, tensions erupted on the sidelines of the route, in particular around Place Denfert-Rochereau, on the approach to Place d’Italie or around the La Rotonde brasserie.
Demonstrations planned again in many cities
Elsewhere too, rallies are planned. The details are already known in some cities. AT Caen, the procession will set off from Saint-Pierre Square at 2.30 p.m. AT Bordeauxit will leave from the Place de la Bourse, at noon, and at Montpellier, from Zeus Square, at 10:30 a.m. AT Nimesaccording to the CGT, the departure is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. at the Jardins de la fontaine, while it will be held at 2 p.m. at the SNCF station, at Grenoble. AT Annecythe opponents must meet in the rue du 30e régiment d’intérieur at 2 p.m., while the processions of Mills, Vichy et Montlucon must leave at 2:30 p.m., respectively from Place de la Liberté, Place de la Poste and Place Jean Dormoy, according to the unions.
A procession is also planned at Lyon, where it will leave at 1:30 p.m. from Place du Maréchal-Lyautey. AT Nantes, the meeting is scheduled for 10.30 am at the water mirror. AT Saint Nazairethe demonstration should start at 10 a.m., place de l’Amérique Latine, while at Rennes, it must start at Place de Bretagne, at 11 a.m. AT Brestthe opponents will march from Place de la Liberté, at 10:30 a.m., while at Strasbourgthey will leave from avenue de la Liberté, at 2 p.m. and at Toulouseat 10 a.m., from Saint-Cyprien.
During this twelfth day of mobilization, the inter-union wants to mark a big blow, by bringing together large processions across the country. To hope to make the executive flinch, it will have to reverse the trend observed in recent weeks, when the number of demonstrators has been falling for several weeks. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, fewer than 600,000 people were present on April 6, compared to more than a million on March 23.
Mobilizations are also planned in some cities the next day, Friday April 14, pending the decision of the Constitutional Council. This will be the case in Caen, Laval or Châteaubriant, for example. The national inter-unionsupports all inter-union mobilization actions and initiatives, including April 14, to win the withdrawal of this reform“, indicated the organizations composing it in their last press release.
The same evening, the unions will meet to decide on the follow-up to be given to the social movement, according to what the Elders will have announced a few hours earlier. But whatever the conclusions of the Constitutional Council, the opponents stick out their tongues, after three months of mobilization. Crossed in the Parisian procession on April 6, bosses of trade union centers underlined the determination of their troops, but did not hide their fatigue either. “It is clear that the CFDT will not demonstrate for six months on this pension reform“warned Laurent Berger on Tuesday morning.