For the 11th day of action against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, marked by some violence, in an increasingly tense climate between the unions and the executive branch, which is betting on physical inactivity, the number of demonstrators fell sharply.
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According to authorities, 570,000 marched across the country, up from 740,000 on the last day of action on March 28. Unions estimated the nationwide turnout at “nearly 2 million,” a figure they say was slightly lower than when the CGT union counted “more than 2 million” protesters at the time.
In Paris, the police headquarters counted 57,000 demonstrators, compared to 93,000 a week ago. The CGT union counted 400,000 people on the streets of the capital last Thursday, against 450,000 demonstrators.
Participation has fallen in the main French cities. In Rennes (West), the usual protest stronghold, the prefecture counted only 8,500 demonstrators and the unions 20,000. The same tendency to run out of air in Marseille (south, 10,000-170,000) or Clermont-Ferrand (centre, 7,500-20,000).
A few outbreaks of violence punctuated the processions.
A restaurant south of Paris, which has become the symbol of the French President who celebrated his qualification for the second round of the presidential election there in 2017, was attacked. “La Rotonde”, already the victim of a fire attempt during the “yellow vest” marches in 2020, saw its awning briefly catch fire before the fire brigade intervened.
A bank was also vandalized in the capital, where the prefecture reported “injuries” to police. According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, 111 arrests were made nationwide and 154 police officers and gendarmes were injured.
In Nantes (west), protesters who threw projectiles and caused damage clashed with the police for more than three hours, AFP noted. In Nancy (East), the porch of a Banque de France branch was set on fire.
For its part, the government is cowering awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Council, which on April 14 will rule on the constitutionality of this very unpopular reform. This high jurisdiction can censure the law, confirm it in whole or in part.
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“I don’t expect much from the Constitutional Council,” commented in Brest (West) Bastien Caban, 36, a framework in the associative environment who wants to believe in the executive’s ability to “recognize that it is wrong”. In contrast, in Strasbourg (north-east), Halima Hamoussa, 54, president of the autonomous trade union FA-FPT, said she hoped the Constitutional Council would “approve us and withdraw this law”.
The flagship project of Emmanuel Macron’s second term is on track after being adopted by forceps in the National Assembly on March 20 after weeks of demonstrations and sterile negotiations.
The use of a constitutional mechanism allowing for adoption without a vote in Parliament has not disarmed the opposition and the unions. On the contrary, relations between the head of state and the social partners, particularly the central reformist CFDT, are deteriorating.
On Wednesday a meeting between Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the Inter-Union – counting 8 organizations – ended with the unions speaking of “failure”, the CGT even denouncing a “stupid, radicalized and isolated government”.
For his part, from China, Emmanuel Macron, through his entourage, responded by insisting on a “democratically supported” project and dismissing the responsibility for the failure of the dialogue on the unions, particularly the CFDT, which “did not want to enter into a compromise.
“I say + stop the provocation +. It doesn’t make sense, we’re not in a ring. I’m not the problem,” retorted Laurent Berger, the head of the CFDT, a reformist union, while the conflict appears to be turning in favor of the extreme right of Marine Le Pen, who is opposed to reform but has been discreet since the beginning of the conflict .
According to a poll published on Wednesday, 47% of French believe that the leader of the National Rally “has the stature of a President of the Republic”, up 5 points in a year, and that she “is capable of reforming the country (51%, +8 points).
Unions called for a 12th day of mobilization on Thursday evening, April 13, on the eve of the Constitutional Council’s decision. The executive director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, considered this reform “inevitable” in France, but in her opinion it requires “building a consensus”.