Hundreds of thousands went on strike and joined marches across France on Thursday, January 19, halting trains, disrupting schooling and cutting electricity production in a trial for the government as workers oppose a deeply unpopular pensions overhaul. Union leaders called on another day of demonstrations for January 31.
The changes presented by President Emmanuel Macron's government last week would raise the retirement age for most people to 64 from 62 and increase the years of contributions required for a full pension.
France's trade unions immediately called for a mass mobilization, showing a united front for the first time in 12 years when the retirement age was hiked to 62 from 60.
France's Interior Ministry said it had counted 1.12 million demonstrators in France as a whole including 80,000 in Paris. The hardline CGT union said two million people had marched throughout the country, and 400,000 in Paris.
Figures provided by French authorities showed there were large demonstrations in cities across France: at least 40,000 people marched in Lyon, 30,000 in Toulouse, 26,000 in Marseille, 15,000 in Montpellier and 14,000 in Tours.
The unions were hoping for over a million demonstrators in more than 200 cities across the country.
These numbers are comparable to or even higher than those of December 5, 2019, which marked the start of the protest against the previous pension reform. The police had then counted 806,000 demonstrators in France, the CGT 1.5 million.
Around the Bastille area of Paris, radical demonstrators hurled bottles, bins and smoke grenades at police who responded with tear gas and charged to disperse the troublemakers.
Some 30 people were arrested, mostly members of a 1,000-strong radical group called "Black Blocs" who wore masks, helmets and black clothes, police said, adding they had managed to split off the group from the main demonstration. No major violent incidents were reported elsewhere in France.
During a news conference on Thursday at a French-Spanish summit in Barcelona, Macron said: "We must do that reform." "We will do it with respect, in a spirit of dialogue but also determination and responsibility."
"I trust that the organizers of these demonstrations will ensure these legitimate expressions of opposition can take place without too many inconveniences for our fellow citizens and obviously without excesses, violence or destruction," Macron said.
Macron along with nine ministers was in Spain on Thursday though Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt stayed behind.
The strikes brought much of the capital's public transport to a standstill and halted a large proportion of trains throughout France. One of the capital's metro lines was closed completely, with another 12 "very disrupted", Paris transport operator RATP told AFP.
The rate of strikers reached 46.3% of workers at the state-owned national rail company SNCF.
The Education Ministry said 42.35% of teachers in primary education were striking, and 34.66% in secondary education. Estimates from teachers' unions placed those numbers between 65 and 70%.
Early on Thursday, strikers at state-owned energy provider EDF said they had lowered electricity output by 7,000 megawatts, while grid operator RTE put the figure at 5,000 MW – enough to power two cities the size of Paris. The reduction would have "no impact on users", the CGT union federation for the sector said.
Public radio stations Franceinfo and France Inter were filling airwaves with music rather than their usual rolling news updates, while TV channel France 2 showed re-runs.
Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT, told broadcaster Public Sénat the planned pension reform "bundles together everyone's dissatisfaction" with the government and that the rare united front among worker representatives showed "the problem is very serious".
French media have reported that police had been making plans for 550,000 to 750,000 protesters, including 50,000 to 80,000 in Paris. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Wednesday that 10,000 police officers would be on alert, more than a third of them in the capital, including to look out for some 1,000 demonstrators who could be "violent."
Transport Minister Clément Beaune warned of "a hellish Thursday", urging all those who can to work from home. With Paris metros and buses in disarray, basketball fans were likely to encounter trouble in trying to reach the sold-out NBA Paris Game between the Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls in the northeast of the city.
Last attempt in 2019
Macron's last attempt at pension reform in 2019 was aborted a year later when Covid-19 hit Europe, prompting the longest strike on the Paris transport network in three decades.
But unions are suspicious of the new overhaul, eager to protect those who started working at a young age or have been toiling in physically demanding jobs.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has defended the reform, still to be debated in parliament, as a way to ensure more "justice" for retirees. "Four out of 10 French people, the most fragile, those of the most modest means, those who have tough jobs, will be able to retire before 64 years old," she told parliament.
"Let's keep debating and convincing," Borne said on Twitter on Thursday evening.