• Tuesday marked the 6th day of interprofessional mobilization against the pension reform.
  • The unions put forward the figure of 3.5 million demonstrators in France, including 100,000 in Lille alone.
  • The traditional gap between the figures of the police and the organizers is, this time, much too high not to question the method.

Since the protests have existed, there has been a battle of figures between the unions and the authorities. The famous "according to the organizers" and "according to the police" generally allows the outside observer to make his idea, the simplest (but not necessarily the most accurate) being to make the average. Except that for the 6th day of mobilization against the pension reform, in Lille, there was in the counts not a gap, but a chasm.

On January 19, during the first demonstration in Lille against retirement at 64, we saw one of the largest processions in recent years. At a glance, we had estimated the number of participants at 20,000, a little above the figure of the prefecture which announced 16,000 demonstrators. For its part, the SNES FSU teachers' union assured that 50,000 people had marched in Lille. A glaring difference, but one that remains within the limits of what is usually done.

CGT sees 9 times more protesters

As for March 7, we are completely out of the box. For the CGT, 100,000 demonstrators walked the pavement of Lille. Half as much for the CFDT, which estimated for its part the participation at 45,000 people. On the other hand, a police source confirmed to 20 Minutes the count of 11,500 participants. That is a rate of change of 769% between the figure of the CGT and that of the police. "The maximum I could see in Lille is 24,500 people," a police source accustomed to demonstrations told 20 Minutes.



Inevitably, such a discrepancy raises questions. Thanks to the full film of the demonstration, our colleagues from the Voix du Nord were able to count precisely the demonstrators to arrive at the figure of 12,930, between 11,600 and 14,200 taking into account a margin of error of 10%. As a result, it is indeed the figure of the authorities that our confreres are getting closer. To explain this figure, 20 Minutes tried, in vain, to contact the general secretary of the CGT in Lille.

  • Hauts-de-France
  • Lille
  • Pension reform 2023
  • Retirement
  • Trade union
  • Demonstration