Pak Sahafat – The announcement of the number of participants in the demonstrations on Thursday in France in protest against the government’s plan to amend the pension law and increase its age, along with the publication of images of the large presence and public acceptance of the call of labor unions and employees in the media as a success in mobilizing people and lining up against government.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency’s report from French news sources, on Thursday, very important and extensive demonstrations were held across France. The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), France’s largest trade union, put the number of participants in the demonstration at over 2 million. The government, however, declares this figure to be one million and 200 thousand people.
Labor unions, who had repeatedly and before the French presidential election, declared their opposition to the plan to amend the Emmanuel Macron government’s pension law and its two-year extension, as the discussion and its official presentation became more serious, they planned a large-scale demonstration and strike.
Around 200 protests were held across France, and the public’s call for the protest against the plan, which is called “unjust and cruel”, largely disrupted the services of the transport sector, the activities of the educational sectors and many businesses.
At 14:00 Paris time, protesters gathered in “La Nation” square. The General Labor Federation declares their number to be 400,000, and the Ministry of Interior declares this number to be 80,000. The gathering in this square was so large that it was divided into two parts with the agreement of the organizers of the gathering.
With the announcement of this call, about 10,000 police forces were mobilized. The media reported the scattered clashes between police forces and protesters in Paris, and the capital’s police command confirmed the arrest of 44 people for reasons such as carrying prohibited weapons, causing chaos and attacking police forces and throwing Molotov cocktails at them.
Multiple reports of protesters across France and the number of participants are being published. Reports reported the presence of more than 13,000 people in the Pau region in southwest France, 8,000 people in Châteauroux in the center of France, 6,500 people in Mulhouse, and this number of protesters compared to It represents a significant increase compared to anti-government protests of the same scale three years ago in 2019.
In big cities like Toulouse, the number of demonstrators was announced as more than 36,000 people, as well as 26,000 people in Marseille, 25,000 people in Nantes, 23,000 people in Montpellier and Lyon, 20,000 people in Rennes, 19,000 people in Clermont-Ferrand, and more than 10,000 people gathered in Metz to protest the government’s reform program.
The huge gathering on Thursday was also welcomed by political figures opposing the government; For example, Yannick Jadeau, one of the French green political figures and one of the candidates of the first round of the presidential elections, called the two million demonstrators “a huge success of the mobilization against the pension reforms” in a tweet and added: President Emmanuel Macron should hear the widespread opposition of the French to his deeply unjust project and abandon it.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Labor, increasing the retirement age to 64 years will lead to the growth of 17 billion and 700 million euros in the income of the pension system and its balance by 2027. An issue which, according to Olivier Dosso, is “necessary and fair”.
While the officials of the labor confederation say, this government decision was taken due to the ignorance of the labor minister about labor hardships, Doso took a sharper tone in an interview with the “B” news channel. F. M” adopted and said: You are the one who is not aware. My parents were workers and I, like others, am familiar with the difficulties at the end of the month.
Unions and workers believe that there are other ways to ensure the continuity of the pension system, including taxes on the rich, increasing the contributions of employers or wealthy pensioners.
The success of public mobilization against Macron’s government’s plan has prompted labor unions to announce January 31 as the date of the next protest and strike. An issue that seems to be able to take on wider dimensions and become a serious challenge for Macron’s government in its second presidential term.