Strike of December 17: all united against government reform

The French opposed to the pension reform beat again the pavement, this Tuesday December 17. For the first time at the appeal of all unions.

According to the Interior Minister, the demonstrations on Tuesday gathered 615,000 protesters in France, including 76,000 in Paris. The ministry had counted 806,000 demonstrators at the time of the first demonstration, last December 5.

The CGT claims for its part to have counted 1.8 million demonstrators, out of the approximately 70 demonstrations organized throughout the territory. It had counted 1.5 million demonstrators on December 5, the first day of the national movement against the pension reform.

Railway workers, teachers, civil servants, lawyers, striking magistrates, but also caregivers who are calling for more resources for the hospital: public and private employees came in numbers in processions on this new interprofessional day of protest against establishment of a universal point pension system.

Consultations are to be held Wednesday and Thursday in Matignon, where the Prime Minister receives the trade unions and employers’ organizations, in an attempt to find a way out of the crisis in the protest movement, which will return on Wednesday in its 14th day.

In Caen, as in Rennes and Nantes, an increase in mobilization on Tuesday. At least 18,000 people expressed anger at the pension reform when they were around 15,000 on December 5. Some clashes erupted at the end of the parade and the police had to work to control the surroundings of the prefecture. Elsewhere, in Calvados, 750 people marched in Lisieux.

The Paris Opera on strike. A spontaneous concert takes place in front of the Opéra Bastille.

Arriving at Place de la Nation, the Parisian procession gave way to some scuffles at the end of the afternoon. « Sporadic clashes » pitted demonstrators against the police, according to journalists present on the spot. Several people were reportedly arrested by the police.

Thirty arrests in Paris. The police had arrested 30 people at 7 p.m., said the prefecture of police. According to the prosecution, there were 23 people in police custody at the same time.

In a press release, the intersyndicale (composed of FO-CGT-FSU-Solidaires and four youth organizations) calls for local actions on December 19 and until the end of December. This means that there will be no « Christmas truce » requested by the government.

« Without a response from the government in the coming hours », the CGT, FO, FSU and Solidaires unions « will decide on the necessary follow-up beyond December, » said their joint statement, which does not foresee a new day at this stage. national action.

Already, last Thursday, the day after the presentation of the pension reform project by Edouard Philippe, the general secretary of the CGT-Cheminots, Laurent Brun, had warned that there would be no truce « unless the government returns to reason.  »

The main processions paraded in the largest cities: 20,000 in Marseille, 17,000 in Lyon and Toulouse, 14,000 in Nantes, 13,000 Bordeaux, 11,000 in Lille, 10,500 in Caen and Montpellier, 10,000 in Brest and Rennes.

About 22,000 protesters mobilized in Nantes, according to our estimates. This is 2,000 more than on December 5. The tension increased at the end of the event. The police used tear gas and projectiles flew. Ten people were arrested. In addition, temporary power outages have been identified. They affected 37,000 households at the height of the cut, according to RTE. « These cuts would be voluntary and linked to the current social movement, » said the same source.

Power cuts occurred Tuesday afternoon in the III and XI arrondissements of Paris on the sidelines of the demonstration against the government’s pension reform project. Some 2,000 homes were still without electricity at the start of the evening after two separate series of degradations between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. on public distribution power stations located along the route of the event.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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