Second day of mobilization in France against the pension reform wanted by President Macron, the unions claim the success of the protest: almost 3 million people have joined, says the CGT union. Tense climate but without riots almost everywhere, but clashes broke out in Paris between the police and a tail of the procession: it was a group of “casseurs” who threw glass bottles and cobblestones at the police, who responded with a series of charges and tear gas.
The participation, according to the numbers of trade unions and prefectures, was overall higher than on the first day of mobilization, last January 19th. However, participation in strikes was slightly lower: 19.4% of civil servants joined (against 28% on 19 January), 36.5% oftramway workers of the SNCF (against 46.3% on the first day), 26.65% of primary school teachers and 25.22% in secondary schools. Overall, the day was a success: according to the CGT, 2.8 million people demonstrated throughout France, 500,000 of them in Paris (but only 87,000 according to the prefecture, which on January 19 had instead counted 80,000 demonstrators). . In Marseille, according to the unions, more than 200,000 people took to the streets (40,000 for the prefecture, an increase compared to 26,000 on January 19), while in Rennes there were 31,000 demonstrators and 65,000 in Nantes, according to union sources. In Lyon and Lille, the firefighters also made their voices heard. Tensions in the capitaloccurred mainly towards the end of the event, a place Vaubanin the seventh arrondissements. 11,000 policemen and gendarmes have been deployed throughout the country.
