The previous day of action, Tuesday March 7, was well attended. REUTERS / SARAH MEYSSONNIER
CARTE – The demonstrators, divided on Saturday between fatalism, anger, and sometimes, hope of making the government back down, did not fill the processions.
The French were called on Saturday to demonstrate for a seventh day against a very unpopular pension reform. A test day for the continuation of the showdown between the government and the unions.
The previous day of action against this reform, Tuesday March 7, was very well attended, the number of people in the street having set a record. With 1.28 million people on the streets according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior and more than 3 million according to the inter-union, the peak of January 31 (1.27) has been exceeded.
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But the demonstrators, divided on Saturday between fatalism, anger, and sometimes, hope of making the government back down, are far from filling the processions. Probably the event too many this week. According to the Ministry of the Interior, a total of 368,000 people demonstrated in France, including 48,000 in Paris, during the 7th day of mobilization against the pension reform, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Figures significantly down from last Tuesday, when 1.28 million people took to the streets in France, according to Place Beauvau. Saturday, February 11, the first demonstration on a weekend, 963,000 demonstrators had been counted throughout the country by the Ministry of the Interior. What about the big cities too?
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At 5:45 p.m., the CGT announced 300,000 demonstrators in the streets of the capital. This is less than during the first Saturday of mobilization, on February 11, when the CGT mentioned 500,000 demonstrators against 93,000 for the police.
In four days, the social movement has descended to its lowest level. “Days don’t compare, they add up“, justified the secretary general of Unsa, Laurent Escure.
Nevertheless, the demonstrators were only 7000 in Marseille according to the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône, as many as mid-February. Identical situation in Toulouse, where the procession gathered 10,000 people according to the prefecture, 45,000 according to the organizers, the lowest figures since the beginning of the year in the pink city. Ditto in Saint-Etienne (2,350 to 8,000) and Strasbourg (1,300 to 5,000), but also in medium-sized towns such as Tarbes (2,500 to 6,000), Roanne (2,000 to 4,000), Arras (1,400 to 2,000), or Montauban (1,000 to 5000), among others.
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Uncertainty remains on the question of whether the blockades and renewable strikes taking place since Tuesday and affecting key sectors of the economy (transport, energy, etc.) will continue.
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In Paris, garbage cans are piling up in some districts, with 4,400 tonnes of waste not collected on Saturday, according to the town hall. The French air transport authority has asked airlines to cancel 20% of their flights scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at several airports, due to a strike by air traffic controllers. On the rail side, the national company SNCF predicted traffic that was still “highly disrupted” on Friday and the weekend. Fabrice Coudour, federal secretary of the CGT Energy, indicated Friday that the strikes continued, in particular in the power plants. The gas strike is also continuing in all LNG terminals and gas storage facilities.