575,000 demonstrators for the Interior Ministry, 1.6 million for the CGT: the biggest day of the autumn, in 260 mostly calm marches. On Monday, a social conference at Matignon.
Mariam Touré supports disabled pupils for 1,030 euros net a month. On Thursday, with her colleagues Dulce and Nacera, she joined the Paris march; the violence of previous Saturdays had kept her at home. On Place de la République, an orchestra played the Imperial March, where tear gas had silenced it on 17 October.
€1,030
net monthly pay for Mariam, a support worker for disabled pupils
Two counts, one certainty
The counts do not meet: 575,000 people according to the Interior Ministry, nearly 1.6 million according to the CGT. One certainty: the biggest day since September, in 260 mostly calm marches, with 642 arrests and 112 police officers and gendarmes injured, says the Interior Ministry. In Paris, AFP saw tear gas, charges and head injuries; readers’ videos show an altercation between gendarmes and police officers.
The wrong targets
Another video shows a courier’s bicycle knocked over by demonstrators, delivery in progress. The wrong targets: those who already give everything to get by, and are stopped from working. On Saturday, a new march in Paris; on Monday, Sébastien Lecornu receives unions and employers at Matignon. A day on strike costs a day’s pay: what is anger worth when it has to be counted in euros at the end of the month?
