Strike of 2nd October: 195,000 Demonstrators Recorded by the Ministry of the Interior, 600,000 According to the CGT

The mobilization was in sharp decline on the 2nd October, shortly after announcements from Sébastien Lecornu called into question by the unions.

The new day of strikes and demonstrations called by the inter-union brought together far fewer people in France on Thursday than the previous one, after budgetary announcements by the Prime Minister which disappointed the unions, a few days before his general policy speech.

The day of union action this Thursday, October 2 will have brought together 195,000 demonstrators throughout France, according to the Ministry of the Interior, including 24,000 in Paris.

The previous day of mobilization, September 18, brought together, according to the Ministry of the Interior, 505,000 people, including 55,000 in Paris.

The CGT for its part, announces to the AFP “nearly 600,000” demonstrators throughout France. A day whose objective was to bend the budgetary orientations of the new Prime Minister before his budgetary policy declaration.

More than 2 million demonstrators in all

In all, the mobilizations of September 10, born on social networks, then of September 18 and October 2 at the call of the inter-union “brought together more than 2 million demonstrators for a historic social return, estimates the second trade union center in a message sent to the AFP.

“This is the first social start where there is this level of mobilization”, “total union unity and very strong determination of workers”, assured the general secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet, at the head of the procession Parisian.

“At the end of a sequence”
But for François Hommeril, president of the CFE-CGC, “we can clearly see that we have reached the end of a sequence (…). We can clearly see (that) the mobilization does not have the level of two weeks ago”, he noted.

Education, transport, universities, transport… Everywhere, the movement was in fact less followed for this second day initiated by the inter-union.

We are mobilizing repeatedly and for the moment nothing is happening, the government remains stuck to its choices: making the world of work, retirees, young people, the sick pay. Without touching the ultra-rich”, laments Muriel Kerdreux, a 60-year-old social worker, in Nantes (west).

Ads from Sébastien Lecornu pinned

In Paris, the leaders of the inter-union pinpointed the latest announcements from Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who is preparing his government for this weekend, a little more than three weeks after succeeding the centrist François Bayrou, whose budgetary measures recommended this summer to reduce France’s deficit (cuts in the public service, freezing of social benefits…) had triggered these mobilizations.

The government of François Bayrou, a minority in the National Assembly (lower house), was overthrown on the 8th September.

Sébastien Lecornu – Emmanuel Macron’s third Prime Minister since June 2024, the fifth since his re-election in 2022 – has also committed to reducing the deficit which is weighing down the nation’s accounts (114% of GDP), but promised “substantive ruptures” in budgetary matters.

“Anti-economic”

On Thursday, his entourage announced Thursday to the AFP that he was studying several avenues for reducing taxes in favor of employees, like a reduction in income tax for couples each paid “slightly” above the minimum wage or “tax exemption and reduction in social charges” on overtime.

“It’s uneconomic: we are destroying jobs by tax-exempting overtime”, said François Hommeril.

The day before, Sébastien Lecornu had assured union leaders that he would take over, for the draft Social Security budget, “in particular (the measure) relating to the improvement of women’s retirement”. “Off topic”, replied the unions who are still demanding the suspension of the pension reform, or even its repeal.

“I don’t think it’s a good thing to list a certain number of measures”, said Marylise Léon of the CFDT. “We are a few days away from the general policy declaration”, scheduled for Tuesday before the deputies, “I have no doubt that we will have answers”.

In a press release Thursday evening, the CGT affirms that the inter-union will meet “the day after” this speech “for analyze the Prime Minister’s announcements, and make the necessary decisions for the future.