NewsWorldParticipation in demonstrations against Macron's pension reform drops and becomes radicalized

Participation in demonstrations against Macron’s pension reform drops and becomes radicalized

The tenth day this Tuesday of strikes and demonstrations against the reform of the national pension system, approved with a decree by the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, was marked by fewer strikers and protesters, the appearance of very diverse new demands, with many disturbances, vandalism and violent confrontations in Paris and some provincial capitals.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, throughout France there was this Tuesday 740,000 protesters. A very modest figure in a country of 68 million inhabitants.

According to the CGT, the first French trade union, 450,000 protesters marched in the capital. According to the same trade union center, five days ago, there were 800,000 demonstrators. It is a union confession of the regression of participation. The Interior Ministry barely counted fewer than 90,000 protesters in Paris on Tuesday. Downward figure after the 119,000 protesters last week.

Throughout France, various independent institutes counted between 500,000 and 700,000 protesters by mid-afternoon on Tuesday. Obviously derisory figures in a country of 68 million inhabitants.

In the strikes, the tenth day was also marked by a decline in participation: 6.5 percent of protesters in the civil service and between 20 and 30 percent in the railways. Low participation in public transport, which functioned relatively normally in Paris, with many incidents.

Radicalization and diversification

The low or relatively low participation in the strikes coincided with a radicalization and diversification of the protests.

The private sector has been practically absent in the protest demonstrations, led essentially by officials and employees of the nationalized public sector, which can cause many disorders with little mobilization. A modest mobilization in the refineries has caused significant problems of fuel shortages in many regions. Emblematic sites, such as the Louvre Museum, the Palace of Versailles, the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower, were forced to close.

The original protest movement against the decree used to impose the reform of the national pension system has been enriched by the appearance of very diverse protest movements. High school and university students ask, here and there, for reforms of their educational models, associating pensions with school issues, using a revolutionary terminology that is as striking as it is far removed from French social reality. In provincial and peripheral France, where the extreme right is in the majority, small groups have appeared that claim to be heirs to the band of yellow vests, which disturbed the nation for two short years.

High school and university students request, here and there, reforms of their educational models, associating pensions with school issues

Since late Tuesday morning, the shortened union parades have frequently ended in violent confrontations in many provincial capitals, always following the same model: small radical groups broke in at the beginning or end of the demonstrations, setting garbage on fire, stoning shops, attacking the forces of order with stones or Molotov cocktails.

In Paris, one of the most modest demonstrations since the crisis broke out in mid-January quickly turned into a spectacular pitched battle, with a growing number of arrests.

After the extremely violent clashes over the weekend, in the reservoirs of the south-east, the Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday made a spectacular deployment of riot police, throughout France, but in particular in Paris, where the flames of mountains of burning rubbish and The vandalism gave the day very harsh images, with an unpredictable impact on a public opinion that is following the crisis with considerable concern.

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