3.5 million demonstrators today according to the CGT, nearly 1.1 million according to the Ministry of the Interior

The mobilization against the pension reform is not weakening, quite the contrary, a few days after the final adoption of the text in the Assembly. For the ninth day of national demonstrations at the call of the inter-union, Thursday March 23, opponents of government reform were significantly more numerous than on March 15 in many cities in France: 3.5 million according to figures from the CGT (including 800,000 in Paris) and nearly 1.1 million according to the Ministry of the Interior (including 119,000 in the capital). Figures almost identical to those of the strongest day of demonstrations so far, March 7.

A week after a half-hearted eighth round (480,000 demonstrators throughout the country according to the Ministry of the Interior, more than 1.7 million according to the CGT) and the day after Emmanuel Macron’s interview, the processions have therefore filled up again. In Rouen, the prefecture counted 14,800 demonstrators, a record since the start of the social movement, while the CGT claimed 23,000.

Nearly 300,000 demonstrators in Marseille, according to the CGT

Participation was also up sharply in Lyon (22,000 to 55,000 demonstrators), Brest (20,000 to 40,000) or Montpellier (18,000 to 40,000), where mobilization nevertheless remained below the peaks recorded during previous days, especially January 31 and March 7. A resurgence compared to the previous day of mobilization was also observed in medium-sized cities such as Agen (4,000 to 6,000), Laval (5,200 to 9,600) or Valenciennes (3,100 according to the police).

Although the figures most often vary by a factor of two between the counts of the police and those of the trade unions, certain cities are distinguished by much more pronounced differences, in particular Saint-Etienne (6,200 to 35,000), Nice (5,200 to 40,000) and, as usual, Marseille, where the prefecture counted 16,000 demonstrators, seventeen times less than the 280,000 listed by the CGT.