The French Tradition of Protesting Pension Reforms

Anger in the National Assembly, violence in the streets and the Bordeaux town hall on fire. Macron's pension reform may have passed in March following the Borne government's controversial use of Article 49-3 of the Constitution, but a large part of the population remains in disagreement with the changes, particularly the increase in the legal retirement age. The latest union-organized demonstrations on May 1 involved violent clashes which resulted in injury to at least 108 police officers and 291 people being detained across the country.

Government figures suggest 782 thousand people took part in the nationwide protests. Organizers however say the figure was far higher, at 2.3 million. This infographic, based on data from the French Ministry of the Interior (via France Info), compares the official size of protests against the various pension reforms in France between 1995 and 2023. There have been several cycles of demonstrations against pension reforms in recent decades: in 1995, in 2003, in 2010, in 2019-2020 and in 2023. This year now has the largest number of days on which protests were organized, with 13 called by the unions. In 2010, the number reached 12.