Paris, Mar 13 (Representative) Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Paris for the seventh nationwide strike against the controversial pension reform, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports. Up to one million people are expected to join around 230 protest marches throughout France, with 70,000-100,000 people expected to rally in Paris, the authorities say. The seventh day of protest disrupted services of public railway operator SNCF and caused cancellations of around 20% of flights at Orly Airport. The demonstration began after 2 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT) at the Place de la Republique, with crowds marching toward the Place de la Nation. A RIA Novosti correspondent estimates that tens of thousands of people are taking part in the protest, including representatives of major trade unions, transport, energy and industrial workers, healthcare employees, teachers, youth and student organizations, as well as supporters of the Yellow Vest movement and radical youth from the black bloc movement. When the radicals started antagonizing law enforcers, pelting them with bottles and firecrackers, the former used tear gas.
The participants can be seen holding banners that read “Retirement age should be 60 for everyone!”, “Raise wages, not retirement age!” and “Pension reform? No, thanks.” “I am against the draft pension reform presented by the government, I am in favor of the draft universal pension reform that was proposed in 2018. Of course, there are people over the age of 62 who can continue to work if they want to. However, you can’t force people to work after the age of 62 if they’ve been working hard all their lives. I love what I do, but I have a hard time getting up early and quickly start to feel tired,” one of the protesters told the correspondent, adding that the reform will hit the hardest those working in construction, restaurant business, healthcare and transport. On Tuesday, large-scale protests against the government-proposed pension reform were launched in almost all sectors of France’s economy, including energy and transport. Around 1.2 million people took part in the demonstrations across the country that day, the French Interior Ministry said. In January, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne unveiled a draft of the controversial pension reform that the government plans to adopt in 2023. Under the initiative, the French authorities intend to gradually raise the retirement age in the country by three months a year from September 1, 2023. By 2030, the retirement age will reach 64.