In Paris on Saturday there is a demonstration against pension reform, organized by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing party Insubdued France (LFI), youth associations and anti-capitalists.
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The column of demonstrators started from Place de la Bastille at 14:00 Paris time towards the Place de la Nation. Protesters carry banners of the parties LFI, the New People’s Ecological and Social Union, the New Anti-Capitalist Party.
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On the posters of the participants you can read “Pension at 60 or death!”, “Losing your whole life to earn money – no!”, “Macron in business – pensioners in the cemetery!”, “Young people say no!”, “Work for years after 60 is good for health! The demonstrators also carry caricatures of French President Emmanuel Macron with the words “Get up, old people! The workers of the future are you!”
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Participants chant slogans “Pension at 60!”, “Makron, we don’t want your reform.”
Tens of thousands of people gathered for the action. A column of demonstrators is escorted by the police.
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The march against pension reform is organized by 11 youth organizations and is also supported by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-wing party Insubordinate France (LFI).
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French media report that 3,500 policemen and gendarmes provide order for the protests in Paris.
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On Thursday, more than 200 demonstrations took place across France against raising the retirement age in the country at the call of eight leading French trade unions (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC, Unsa, Solidaires, FSU). The largest actions took place in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse, Lille and Nantes. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country, more than a million people took part in them, of which 80 thousand were in Paris.
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French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born on January 10 presented a draft of the controversial pension reform, which the government plans to adopt in 2023. According to her, the French authorities will begin to raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1, 2023, thus, by 2030 it will reach 64 years.
