PARIS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th April, 2023) The French authorities expect up to 600,000 people to participate in a nationwide demonstrations against the pension reform on Thursday, ahead of the Constitutional Council's final decision on the legislation, French media reported on Wednesday.
Territorial intelligence services expect from 400,000-600,000 demonstrators across France on the 12th day of protests, with up to 70,000 of them in Paris, the BFMTV broadcaster reported.
At the same time, the number of demonstrators continues to decline, the broadcaster said, noting that interior ministry data showed a total of 570,000 people participated in the protest action on April 6, with 57,000 of them in the capital.
The ministry also warned that there would likely be about 1,000 radical citizens, as well as 600 supporters of the Yellow Vests movement, among the demonstrator procession in Paris
The largest demonstrations will take place in Toulouse, Montpellier, Brest, Nantes, Marseille, Rennes, Caen, Quimper, Bordeaux, Lyon, Grenoble and Pau, according to BFMTV.
A total of 270 protests will take place across France on Thursday, including blockades of industrial enterprises and highways, intelligence data showed.
On March 16, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that the government had adopted a law on raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 by invoking Article 49.3 of the constitution, which allowed the bill to get passed without parliamentary approval. The decision sparked a strong backlash, prompting people to take to the streets across the country.
There have been 10 nationwide strikes and hundreds of demonstrations in France within the last three months, with over 1 million people taking part in most of them. March 7 saw a record 1.3 million protesters all over the county, according to the French interior ministry's information. During the protests, violent clashes often broke out between the police and the protesters.
On Friday, the Constitutional Council will decide whether the law conforms with the country's legislation, and if the decision is positive, the reform will go into effect on September 1.
