New Delhi: Nearly three weeks into a strike that has caused filling stations across France to close, nearly 140,000 people flocked to the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest against rising living costs, gasoline prices, and climate inaction, as per a report by Radio France Internationale (RFI).
However, police said that, as they had anticipated, only 30,000 protesters showed up for the protest on Sunday.
The event has been planned by left-wing critics of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration, who claim it is also a protest against climate change inaction on part of the government.
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Une autre vie est possible, débarrassée du pillage du profit. Un autre monde est possible, libéré du saccage du productivisme capitaliste.
Avec ce que nous sommes en train de faire aujourd’hui, nous dessinons un nouveau Front populaire.#Marche16Octobre #LaMarche pic.twitter.com/A0o454pAkV
— Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@JLMelenchon) October 16, 2022
Although the march’s organisers hope to capitalise on the present industrial strife, it was organised long before the current strike by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the fiery leader of the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party.
Manon Aubry, an LFI deputy, claims “It is intolerable that prices are rising. The largest decline in purchasing power in 40 years has occurred.”
She continued, “It’s time the billions in profits the major businesses were reaping were transferred down to those struggling to make ends meet.”
Approximately 30,000 people are expected to attend the march, which will start at Place de la Nation at 14:00 local time. According to one source, police are concerned about “troublemakers” on the radical left.
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Various gas stations have been forced to close due to the conflict at French refineries and gasoline depots, which has a ripple impact on all facets of the French economy.
Due to the hard-left CGT union’s strikers’ rejection of a salary offer from the leader of the hydrocarbon industry that other unions accepted, four of France’s seven refineries and one fuel depot remain shut down.
They are still incensed that Macron’s administration this week utilised requisitioning powers to order some strikers back to operating fuel stations, a decision that has so far been backed by the courts.
In a nation where three-quarters of workers rely on personal vehicles for their jobs, the union runs the risk of inflaming discontent. One poll, which was issued on Friday, indicated that only 37% of the people supported the strike.
