Protesters gathered at Place de la République in Paris for a mass rally and strike against pension reform on January 19, 2023
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across France to protest against the Macron government’s plans to reform the pension system, of which a proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 is among the most controversial. Macron insists the reform is needed to reform a moribund system – but some of the government’s own experts have said the pension system is in relatively good shape and would likely eventually return to a balanced budget even without reforms.
Union organisers said some 400,000 people protested just in Paris; participation estimates from the interior ministry were not immediately available but are likely to be much lower. Mass protests were also seen in cities including Lyon, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nantes and on the French island of Corsica.
Macron, who was on a visit to Spain on Thursday, told a press conference that the government was determined to press ahead with the reform.
More than a dozen people were arrested on the sidelines of the protest after members of the anarchist Black Bloc movement threw rubbish bins, bottles and smoke bombs at police.
6:44pm: ‘More than 2 million’ protesters in France, union head says
Philippe Martinez, the head of France’s CGT trade union, said that “more than two million” people took part in Thursday’s protests against the government’s pension reform plans. The French interior ministry has not yet issued its estimate, but it is likely to be much lower.
The vast majority of the near 200 protests that were held across France during the day were described as peaceful, with only a few exceptions reported in Paris, Lyon and Rennes.
In Paris, some 30 people were arrested, mostly members of a 1,000-strong anarchist group Black Blocs who wore masks, helmets and black clothes, police said, adding they had managed to split off the group from the main demonstration.
6:32pm: ‘Things getting slightly more tense’
In Paris, where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets, FRANCE 24’s senior reporter Catherine Norris-Trent said things were now “getting slightly more tense” as the procession had reached the capital’s Place de la Bastille and the sun was setting.
“We’ve been hearing several loud detonations that could be tear gas canisters," she said, adding that a lot of people had been blocked to enter the square by riot police.
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