French unions rally supporters to the streets ahead of pension ruling
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00:00 cross now to France 24's Catherine Norris-Trent in Paris. So Catherine, what's the scene where
00:05 you are and what are organizers expecting in terms of numbers today?
00:09 Hi there, Monty. I'm in the Place de l'Opéra in the centre of Paris where the crowds are
00:17 now starting to gather and there are more and more people flocking in here. The trade
00:23 unions have got their stands and their vans out as you can see behind me and they're gearing
00:28 up for another big protest march through Paris and they are hoping that they can keep on
00:33 getting large numbers of the people onto the streets on this 12th national day of protest.
00:40 Numbers have been dwindling a bit. At one stage there were more than a million people
00:45 coming out onto the streets of the French capital by the Interior Ministry's count.
00:49 They've been down in recent weeks and this law has now been passed through Parliament
00:54 or being forced through using the 49-3 constitutional tool there by the government. A lot of people
01:01 are still very angry about that. But basically now it's all but become law and there is a
01:07 sense that while the people here I've been speaking to are very determined here today,
01:12 that there's a bit of a sense of defeatism too, that people are selling this, that they
01:17 feel quite sceptical, cynical, disheartened, they think this law is going to go through.
01:22 But they still remain angry Monty. So we're bracing perhaps for another day of tensions
01:29 towards the end of the day's protest. We know that groups of rioters have been battling
01:33 with French riot police at the end of recent days of protest. There's a big security presence,
01:39 banks and luxury shops around this central Paris area have been boarded up. So we'll
01:43 have to wait and see what goes on but the mood here is still pretty angry and pretty
01:47 defiant.
01:48 Well Catherine, of course this all comes before tomorrow's big ruling from the Constitutional
01:52 Council on these pension reforms. How are protesters thinking about this decision that
01:58 we're expecting tomorrow?
02:03 A lot of tension is on what the Constitutional Council in France will have to say. Basically
02:07 tomorrow they give their final verdict on whether these pension reforms can become law.
02:12 So this is set to be a bit of a flashpoint. People waiting here saying they think the
02:16 law will go through, a couple of groups of protesters told me, but they say they're still
02:20 going to come out onto the streets anyway. And if it is indeed passed, well that could
02:24 prove another flashpoint for protests and violence. The Constitutional Council could
02:29 strike down the law, strike down some of the law, or even allow the left-wing opposition
02:33 of course for a referendum on it. Now that could plunge French politics into chaos for
02:38 the next 15 months. That would be quite a curveball. So the government and the protesters
02:43 are watching that decision very closely ahead of tomorrow's ruling.