PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th 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!"
Later in the day, black bloc radicals joined the protest in Paris and started breaking windows of banks and knocking over garbage cans. When police officers stepped in, the radicals started pelting them with glass bottles and firecrackers. In response, the police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
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.
The French Interior Ministry estimated nationwide attendance at 963,000 whereas France's largest union, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT), put it at 2.5 million, the BFMTV broadcaster reported.
According to the police, some 93,000 people joined the protest in Paris, while the organizers reported as many as 500,000 participants.
The strike also impacted air traffic, with half of flights being canceled on Saturday at the Orly international airport in Paris.
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.
