Demonstration against the pension reform on April 20, 2023 in Rennes (AFP / JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)
Filtering dams, occupied railway tracks, demonstrations or punch actions: the challenge to the pension reform continued Thursday in several cities in France, in the form of a “heating tour” before May 1.
On the transport side, the four representative unions of the SNCF had called for a “day of expression of railway anger”. But the disruptions were limited.
In Rennes, some 5,000 demonstrators according to the unions, 1,200 according to the prefecture, marched against the reform.
“We can take this event as a little warm-up before May 1, where I hope we will be very, very numerous. It is by waves that may seem small, by dint of repetitions, that we send still a message,” said one of the demonstrators, Olivier Le Moigne, a 63-year-old retiree.
The inter-union called for making May 1 “a day of exceptional and popular mobilization against pension reform and for social justice”.
In the meantime, in Paris, railway workers and employees from other sectors on strike briefly invaded the hall of the Euronext tower at La Défense, after similar actions in previous weeks against other companies deemed symbolic.
Starting from a general assembly at Gare de Lyon, around 300 people took the RER to La Défense then ran to enter the hall of the tower, which they flooded with smoke bombs while chanting slogans, noted a AFP journalist.
– “Firecracker” –
Demonstration against the pension reform on April 20, 2023 in Bordeaux (AFP / THIBAUD MORITZ)
Later, at the beginning of the afternoon, a demonstration started from the Town Hall, strong of several hundred people, noted an AFP journalist. A few burnt garbage cans, shop windows and broken bus stop windows have been identified.
“The mobilization is on a downward slope because everyone is saving for May 1 which, I think, will mark the spirits”, declared Armand Courty, CGT trade unionist at the Paris police headquarters.
The mobilization on the occasion of this workers’ day promises to be “historic”, also judged Jérôme Schmitt (Sud-Energie).
Another punchy action, the CGT claimed two power cuts at Montpellier airport and in a college in Hérault, during a trip by Emmanuel Macron to the department.
And in Lyon, the offices of SNCF Réseau were temporarily invaded by more than a hundred railway workers, determined not to turn the page.
In the afternoon, around 80 demonstrators blocked traffic at Besançon station for two hours, again occupying the tracks. 14 TER and one TGV were affected by 45-minute delays between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m., before traffic was fully restored, SNCF said.
Demonstration against the pension reform on April 20, 2023 in Paris (AFP / Geoffroy Van der Hasselt)
In Bordeaux, some 300 demonstrators according to the CGT also gathered at midday in front of the station for a “village of struggles” at the call of the railway unions. Protesters brandished a puppet decked out with the face of Emmanuel Macron, with the words “Super liar”, before blowing up this effigy with a firecracker.
In several other stations, including those of Niort (Deux-Sèvres) or Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne), demonstrators temporarily occupied the tracks, while in Lorient (Morbihan), a level crossing was blocked Thursday morning . Filtering or blocking road operations have been recorded in Figeac (Lot) or Auch (Gers).
The actions continued until the evening when in Nantes, around 200 to 300 people strolled through the city center making noise with saucepans and chanting “Nantes, up! Get up” or “everyone hate the police”.
