The essential :
- At the call of the inter-union, a national strike is scheduled for Thursday, March 23. This is the ninth day of mobilization against the pension reform, the first (official) after the adoption of the law via the constitutional weapon of 49.3, on March 15.
- The police predict “between 600,000 and 800,000 people on around 320 actions”, including 40,000 to 70,000 in Paris, where the procession will set off at 2 p.m. from the Place de la Bastille. About 500 yellow vests and 500 radical elements are expected in Paris, and “in the provinces, more than ten cities will see demonstrations of the ultra-left, encouraged by the climate of violence of the last few days”.
- Between 40 and 50% of strikers are expected in nursery and elementary schools. The strikers could also be numerous among refiners, electricians and gas producers, at the forefront of the dispute. Traffic should be severely disrupted at RATP and SNCF. And the Fidl high school student union called for “massive blockades throughout the territory” this Thursday and Friday.
- The supply of kerosene to Île-de-France and its airports via Normandy “became critical” due to strikes in the refineries. Given this situation, the government “issued a requisition order” with regard to the strikers at the TotalEnergies refinery in Normandy.
10:29 a.m. – Channel: a demonstrator knocked down by a motorist at a blockage
According West France , a motorist allegedly tried to force the passage of a blocked roundabout in Guilberville, near Saint-Lô (Manche), mowing down a CGT activist from Vire. Injured, she was taken to hospital.
10:27 a.m. – Jérôme Fourquet: “The point of tension is called Macron”
For political scientist Jérôme Fourquet, it is the poor appreciation of the power of opposition that leads to the current political impasse. Find our interview right here ⏬
READ ALSOJérôme Fourquet: “The point of tension is called Macron”
10:24 a.m. – Universities massively closed
In addition to those of Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Rennes 2 and Roubaix, the universities Assas, Paris-1, Paris-8 and Nanterre are closed this Thursday. The campuses of Toulouse 2, Strasbourg, Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon-3 (University Palace) are also paralyzed.
10:10 a.m. – A terminal at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport blocked by protesters
After Marseille station, it is the turn of terminal 1 at Paris Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport to be blocked by these CGT activists.
10:09 a.m. – Larcher and Marleix refuse any poaching of the majority at LR
The President of the Senate Gérard Larcher (LR) and the President of the LR group in the Assembly Olivier Marleix refused Thursday the outstretched hand of Emmanuel Macron to the “individualities” on the right who supported his pension reform.
“We can work around successive texts, but I am personally for a line that remains independent, autonomous,” said Gérard Larcher on LCI, recalling having “deep differences” with President Emmanuel Macron. For the right-wing leader, a coalition contract is made “around a project” and “the time to write the project, it’s called the day after the presidential election or the legislative elections”, not months more late.
“The method of poaching, it is totally worn out,” added Olivier Marleix on Public Sénat, recognizing that “there are not many people left to poach elsewhere”.
10:05 a.m. – Amiens: a biker dies in an accident near a roadblock against pension reform
A biker died Thursday morning in a collision with a car in Argœuves, near Amiens, in an industrial area where filter dams are organized as part of the challenge to the pension reform, we learned from the prefecture and the fire department.
The Somme firefighters “intervened around 6:40 a.m. for an accident between a motorcyclist and a light vehicle. The motorcyclist was declared deceased on the spot”, indicated the prefecture of the Somme, without further details on the circumstances of the accident. ‘accident.
According to the socialist departmental councilor Frédéric Fauvet, who arrived on the scene about 20 minutes after the shock, the accident took place upstream of a roundabout where demonstrators have installed, since dawn, a filtering dam, at about 200m. According to the information he gathered from the emergency services and trade unionists on the spot, the motorcyclist advanced to the roundabout and spoke with activists, who told him that the two-wheelers could pass but other vehicles were blocked. “Despite this information, he chose to turn around” and left “at an excessive speed”, reported the elected official to AFP. He then “collided at a very high speed with a vehicle coming out of the roadside”.
“I rather assimilate this to a traffic accident” insisted Frédéric Fauvet, stressing that there was no traffic jam at this roundabout.
10:00 a.m. – Fos-sur-Mer: requisitions continue at the refinery
The requisition of striking employees at the important oil depot of Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, was extended via a new decree on Wednesday evening, and this, for 48 hours again, announced the police headquarters of Bouches- du Rhone on Thursday. This decree takes up the conditions of the initial decree, announced Tuesday by the Ministry of Energy Transition, i.e. the requisition of “three employees per shift”.
These requisitions concern “personnel essential to the operation of the depot”, which supplies fuel to the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region and the east of the Occitanie region, the ministry said in its press release on Tuesday.
09:55 – The hotel and restaurant sector worried
The employers of the hotel and catering industry ask, this Thursday, to “be able to work by welcoming with dignity and in complete safety” its customers, at the start of a 9ᵉ day of mobilization against the pension reform, deploring the “social tensions “which penalize the activity.
“We are today in a situation of very strong tension for our companies which are very directly affected by the backlash of social tensions in the country”, declared Thierry Marx, president of Umih, the main employers’ union in the sector, in a press release. “Our companies are trapped in a social protest while they are in a situation of extreme economic fragility”, he continues, noting a “very degraded social and economic situation throughout the territory. which prevents us from carrying out our activity – blockages, violence, garbage not picked up…”
This “social crisis is added to the economic crisis” linked to “the considerable increase in the cost of raw materials and that of energy”, argues Thierry Marx, who calls “all the actors to find the way back to ‘order and a return to normal’.
09:35 – Emmanuel Macron’s interview was followed by 10 million people
Ten million people watched Emmanuel Macron’s interview yesterday, at 1 p.m., on TF1 or France 2. This interview on the two channels achieved nearly 67% audience share: two thirds of the people who were in front the TV at that time were watching her, not to mention the non-stop news channels. On the other hand, if we focus only on 25-49 year olds, the interview was followed by 1.1 million viewers of this age group on TF1 and 500,000 on France 2.
9:33 a.m. – The Saint-Nazaire bridge reopened to traffic
The Saint-Nazaire bridge was reopened to traffic this morning after carrying out emergency work. Last night, traffic on Europe’s longest bridge was cut off due to “significant damage” by protesters. “Work will be necessary to restore the degraded equipment”, underlines the manager who calls on users to be careful when crossing.
A hundred demonstrators – dockers, handlers but also construction workers or from neighboring companies – had blocked this bridge at dawn on Wednesday, preventing all traffic. In a tense atmosphere, they had set fire to street furniture and prevented any passage on the bridge until the afternoon. Two signaling gates collapsed “after being burned and multiple security damage identified”, lamented the county council, which filed a complaint after these “significant voluntary damage”.