DEMONSTRATION APRIL 6. Several disruptions are announced by the unions for the strike on Thursday, April 6, but the mobilization of strikers and demonstrations could be less important.
The places and times of departure of the processions are already known in several cities of France, in particular Lyon, Nantes, Strasbourg or Bordeaux, from the elements communicated by the CFDT. Below is a map with a very large part of the demonstrations identified by the union for the strike of April 6, 2023.
The Paris procession will therefore leave at 2 p.m. from Place des Invalides in the 7th arrondissement. To reach Place d’Italie in the 13th arrondissement, the demonstrators will pass through Montparnasse and Denfert Rochereau. Public transport in these areas will therefore be disrupted. The CGT hopes to see its estimate of 450,000 protesters raised on D-Day. On March 28, the Paris police headquarters published an estimate of 93,000 demonstrators. The slight disturbances planned by the RATP and the SNCF suggest a drop in the strike in the Ile-de-France transport sector. Apart from the main procession, other actions are planned in the capital. An action is organized at 11 a.m. at the Gare de Lyon in the 12th arrondissement. A student rally in front of the Racine high school in the 8th arrondissement is also announced at 11 a.m.
Several strike calls are announced in transport. However, metro, RER and train traffic is planned to be “normal to almost normal” according to the RATP and the SNCF. The RATP has published its traffic forecasts in the Paris metro. For the eleventh major demonstration against the pension reform, traffic will be practically undisturbed in the Paris metro. The few lines affected by the strike will be communicated at 5 p.m. by the RATP. Buses and trams will have “normal service”.
While the strike movement should again be followed in many professional sectors (transport, education, energy…), what about participation in the demonstrations? On the side of the organizers, no fear of a shortness of breath is indicated. If the protest faced a drop in participation on March 28, on the occasion of the tenth day of mobilization at the call of the inter-union, with between 740,000 demonstrators according to the Ministry of the Interior and 2 million participants according to the CGT, the previous day of mobilization of March 23 had brought together 3.5 million people according to the CGT, and 1.08 million according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Since the adoption, on March 16, of the pension reform via the use of article 49.3, spontaneous demonstrations have taken place almost daily in several cities in France. A spontaneous demonstration is a demonstration that has not been declared to the prefecture or the town hall of the city concerned. In recent days, these demonstrations outside the framework of the inter-union have sometimes been marked by clashes between demonstrators and the police. Violence that could discourage some people from going to the processions on Thursday, April 6…
Claire Hédon, the Defender of Rights, is invited by the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nunez, to observe the demonstration in the command room of the prefecture. Lawyers will be with her. This trip is a first for a Defender of Rights. It comes after “90 reports of police violence” following protests against pension reform at this independent institution. Compliance with ethics by people carrying out security activities is part of Claire Hédon’s field of action.
