Initially labour unions had planned a day of action on March 31, but after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe invoked article 49-3 of the constitution, which allows the government to force the adoption of a law over the weekend, they decided to take the streets earlier.
Philippe invoked the article out of frustration after opposition parties filed a staggering 41,000 amendments to the governments' reform plans in an attempt to slow down the process.
A general strike was announced on Monday, but on Tuesday, public transport worked normally throughout the country.
The demonstrators marched from Place de la République to the Madeleine Church. Organizers estimated the total participants at some 20.000.
Votes of no confidence
Article 49-3 can only be stopped by a vote of no confidence.
Opposition parties submitted two motions of no-confidence, one sponsored by the right wing Les Republicains (LR) which was also backed by the ultra right Rassemblement National (ex Front National) of Marine Le Pen, the other by a group of left wing parties, including the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the hard-left La France Insoumise of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
However, it is unlikely that either motion will pass, as the ruling parte of Emmanuel Macron, La République En Marche (LREM) enjoys an absolute majority of 297 seats in the 577 seat parliament.
However, the reform proposals will face hurdles when they are presented to the 348 seat senate, where LREM has only 21 seats, against LR 146 and the combined left wing 93 seats. When the Senate fails to agree with the proposals, they can be referred back to parliament.
49-3 degrees
Earlier in the day, demonstrators carried slogans saying that the “Coronavirus temperature has risen to 49-3 degrees,” and “we won’t stop until the law has been withdrawn.”
“People were shocked when the government surprised everybody by invoking 49-3,” commented Catherine Perret, of the hardline CGT labor union.
“France is dealing with the coronavirus. It forced us to react quickly, it didn’t leave us much time organize strikes.”
“We will have to continue our actions. There is a lot of anger among employees, it is democracy denied,” says Benoit Teste of the teachers union FSU.
Funeral march
In other places there were demonstrations as well. In Lille, in the north of France, some 400 people gathered in the city center. In Rennes, 80 lawyers (out of 900 registered at the bar) marched through the streets in a “funeral march” where the carried a coffin marked “our beloved justice.”
In Bordeaux, about one thousand people demonstrated in front of the city hall. Some were wearing surgical masks marked, in red “49-3,” referring to the constitutional article invoked by the government to push through the pension reforms.
In Marseille, several thousand people marched in the morning, including the secretary general of the CGT Philippe Martinez.
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