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Nearly 300,000 people demonstrated in France on Tuesday for higher wages and to defend their right to strike, including more than 70,000 in the main march in Paris, the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) said. But according to the Interior Ministry, a total of 107,000 people demonstrated on Tuesday in France, including 13,000 in Paris, on the call of trade unions for higher wages and against the requisitioning of strikers in the refineries.
There were 15 arrests during the rallies, including 11 in Paris, the ministry added. Nine members of the police force were “slightly injured”, including eight in the capital, the ministry said, adding that “no demonstrators” had been injured.
There were more than 1,000 demonstrators in Strasbourg, 3,600 in Le Havre and 7,000 in Bordeaux.
Between 1,100 police and 1,300 union demonstrators responded to the call in Strasbourg.
One of them was Nadine, 45 years old, an employee in the metal industry, who thought it was “a pity to reach a blocking point to get things moving, but today if we don’t block anything, we won’t be heard”.
Marchers were heard chanting: “This can’t go on any longer, it’s going to explode”.
In Nantes, the CGT counted 4,000 participants. Toulouse, Bastia and Ajaccio were also mobilised. In Marseille, 2,200 people demonstrated according to the police, who counted 2,000 participants in Martigues.
About 200 people formed a “black bloc” that infiltrated the Paris march on Tuesday, October 18.
The authorities were expecting these irruptions.
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According to the CGT, the Parisian demonstration, which left at around 2pm from the Place d’Italie and dispersed at around 5.30pm at Les Invalides, gathered 70,000 people.
The Ministry of the Interior counted 13,000.
Additional reporting by Maria Ortega
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