Demonstration at the call of youth organizations and La France insoumise against the pension reform, January 21, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Thomas SAMSON)
Thousands of people marched on Saturday afternoon in the cold in Paris against the pension reform, responding to the call of youth organizations but also of La France insoumise, wishing to maintain the flame of protest.
“Resistance!”, “we are here, even if Macron does not want it”: while the bill providing in particular for the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64 years must be presented Monday in the Council of ministers, a procession led by young people, but mixing all generations, walked between the places of the Bastille and the Nation without notable incident.
We were far from the crowds observed during the day on Thursday, which had brought together between one and two million demonstrators throughout France according to estimates by the police or the CGT.
Claiming some 150,000 participants, the organizers can boast of having achieved their objective: to obtain a mobilization at least equal to that of the “march against the high cost of living” last October, organized by the mélenchonistes and which had drained 140,000 participants from ‘after the instigators, 30,000 according to the police. Other counts are however much more measured: 12,000 people according to a police source, 14,000 according to the cabinet Occurrence for a collective of media including AFP.
In the crowd, Charlotte Lamorlette, 30-year-old director, and Chloé Kiskipour, 29-year-old actress, agree that “the more demonstrations the better”. “We are at the start of the movement, we must send a strong signal and encourage other people to come,” they say, after having to skip Thursday’s march because they were working.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the Insoumis, in the parade against the pension reform, January 23, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Thomas SAMSON)
“We are aware that it is our generation that will suffer the most from the effects of this reform. We have short contracts, it is difficult to fit into the labor market”, proclaimed before the departure of the procession Camille Hachez , member of the Young Ecologists.
At his side, Zoé Lorioux-Chevalier, member of the Génération.s party, is on the move. “We are revolted, we want to fight it out, we want to say that we will not be the sacrificed generation”. “The youth are fed up,” she insists, during a press briefing where the role of La France insoumise was discussed, which, according to an internal source, was actively in charge of this march both in the organization than the funding.
– “Complementary” –
Because LFI walks on the razor’s edge, anxious to weigh in the sequence, but also not to be accused of bypassing the unions or of appropriating the protest movement. The left allies have also chosen divergent strategies, EELV, the PS and the PCF not officially supporting Saturday’s initiative, even if some environmental deputies have however made the trip.
Demonstration against the pension reform, January 21, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Thomas SAMSON)
“Our role is to be in support of all the mobilizations”, cleared Saturday during a press briefing the deputy Louis Boyard, responsible for youth at LFI. Before getting annoyed: “Can’t you see that young people are in enormous precariousness? This is the only subject we want to talk about today.”
“It’s not at all a question of competition between mobilizations, it’s complementary,” insisted alongside him Eléonore Schmitt, spokesperson for the student union L’Alternative.
Demonstration at the call of youth organizations and La France insoumise against the pension reform, January 21, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Thomas SAMSON)
Present in the crowd, Jean-Luc Mélenchon for his part contented himself with a few words at the microphone on the roof of the organizers’ truck, addressed to Emmanuel Macron. “Be cursed for wanting to transform our whole existence into a commodity (…) dirty everything, spoil everything, reduce everything, quantify everything”, he launched.
The spokesman of the New Anti-Capitalist Party Olivier Besancenot for his part called on the demonstrators to be “activists of the general strike. We are going to block society, paralyze the economy”, he chanted, while the project of law must be presented Monday in the Council of Ministers.
For the deputy LFI François Ruffin, “we must expand, expand, expand. To the youth, to the yellow vests, to single mothers, to tradesmen”.
Before pleading with AFP, in view of the next day of mobilization at the call of the inter-union on January 31, for “that everyone bring a friend”. “We must overflow the river.”
© 2023 AFP
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