The fourth general strike against the controversial pension reform is taking place in Paris, with tens of thousands of people marching through the city streets, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Saturday
PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2023) The fourth general strike against the controversial pension reform is taking place in Paris, with tens of thousands of people marching through the city streets, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported on Saturday.
The demonstrators who began the protest at the Place de la Republique are now heading to the Place de la Nation. A RIA Novosti correspondent estimated that up to 100,000 people gathered in central Paris.
The protesters are carrying banners of leading French trade unions that staged the strike, and posters with slogans "Macron, seek your own retirement, but don't touch ours!" and "Prisoners of work will not live to be old." The demonstrators are also chanting "Let's fight for a pension at 60!"
The unions previously said that the protest had been organized on a weekend to allow more people to participate.
In total, over 200 demonstrations against the pension reform are taking place across France on Saturday, including in all major cities, such as Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, and Nantes. The trade unions stated the protest in Toulouse had gathered more than 100,000 people.
On January 10, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne presented a draft pension reform legislation, which the government plans to implement in September 2023. According to Borne's plan, the French government will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months per year from September 1, gradually increasing it from the current age of 62 to 64 by 2030.
The first general strike against the pension reform plan took place on January 19 and gathered over a million people nationwide, with 80,000 in Paris. A total of 2.8 million people took part in the second demonstration on January 31. However, only around 757,000 people showed up at the third nationwide protest this past Tuesday, with 57,000 in Paris alone.
The fifth national demonstration is scheduled for February 16.
