The eight unions which called for demonstrations in Toulouse on Thursday announced on Wednesday that they would maintain the route in the city center, against the advice of the prefecture, which issued an order prohibiting this route. “Our demands are still the same and are more relevant than ever. This is why, for our salaries, our pensions, for youth and public services, we maintain our call to demonstrate peacefully this Thursday, November 5 at 2 p.m., Place Saint-Cyprien,” writes the inter-union in a press release.
The CGT, FO, CFDT, CFE-CGC, Unsa, FSU, Solidaires and CFTC unions also announce the filing of an interim appeal against the banning order issued the day before by the Haute-Garonne prefecture. The organizers filed a declaration of demonstration on Monday between the Saint-Cyprien district and the Allée Jean-Jaurès, a traditional route for social demonstrations in the pink city.
But the prefecture firmly ruled out the hypothesis of a route through the center, explaining Tuesday evening in a press release that it “does not allow, in the current context of strong tensions, to guarantee that the freedom to demonstrate can be reconciled with the safety of demonstrators as well as the protection of people and property around the planned route”. State services therefore proposed, as an alternative route, a loop around the outlying Arènes district, where incidents occurred during recent demonstrations, but not approaching the historic and commercial center of Toulouse.
While a petition calling for the closure of the CNews channel exceeded 800,000 signatures, Marine Le Pen welcomed the existence of the channel, the only one according to her to evoke the attack on young Catholics in Rouen, accompanied according to them by insults like “dirty white” and “dirty fascist”.
“Whatever one may think, fortunately CNews exists to discuss the attack on young Catholics in Rouen with cries of “dirty white” and “dirty fascist”, a manifestation of anti-White racism that almost no other media has spoken about. Refusing to speak and condemn all racism is to refuse to condemn racism,” wrote the National Rally candidate for the presidential election.
According to our information, the city of Marseille is preparing for tomorrow with a reinforced police force. Seven CRS companies will be present. A water throwing machine, two gendarmerie Centaurs and three mobile gendarmerie platoons will come as reinforcements.
There will be 10 mobile force units (UFM) in France's second city. For comparison, only the city of Paris will have more police personnel with no less than 18 CRS companies. Other cities like Nantes, Bordeaux or Rennes will only have two.
By Nicolas Farmine, in Marseille
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez asked prefects and security officials on Tuesday to provide “robust devices” for the “sensitive” day of demonstrations on Thursday, according to a telegram consulted by AFP. “The days of October 17, then 24 and 31 saw, in many cities across the national territory, massive groups of individuals, extremely mobile, attack places of power, loot numerous businesses and attack the police,” explains the minister in the preamble, before recalling that the day of November 5 “was the subject of numerous calls to demonstrate as part of a national day of inter-union action.”
To avoid excesses, such as damage, violence and looting at an unprecedented level of intensity on October 17, Laurent Nuñez therefore asked the prefects to “work in the same spirit as for the days of October 24 and 31” with the establishment of “robust, agile and responsive operational systems”, with reinforced police and gendarmerie personnel “during this sensitive day”.
They are also invited to take “any administrative police measure helping to guarantee that the demonstrations which take place are calm and smooth”, such as bans on demonstrations in the city center, orders authorizing the use of drones or a ban on the carrying of weapons and protective equipment.
On the eve of a major day of mobilization on Thursday, November 5, the inter-union held a press conference this Wednesday. “We are in a phase of repression and an unprecedented ban on demonstrations,” denounced [Name missing], confederal secretary of the CGT. “We had already noted an extremely serious first shift in the movements against pension reform in 2023,” she added.
The unions point out “obstructions to the freedom to go on strike”, citing the example of the RATP where, according to them, employees wishing to go on strike “are obliged to send a registered letter to their employer”.
They count “more than 1,500 calls for strike” during this day of mobilization which will bring together private and public employees and retirees, for jobs, salaries, public services, industry.
Also read Strike of November 5: TGV, TER, RER… What should you expect in transport?
Two weeks before Marine Le Pen presents her pension reform, supposed to restore a legal age to 62 or even 60 years, Jordan Bardella indicates in his new book “Governing” published Wednesday that the National Rally intends to “strengthen the conditions for validation of a quarter”. The four-time candidate for the Élysée plans to detail her project on November 17. But his runner-up, promised to Matignon in the event of victory, already reveals the key: increasing the “effective contribution period” rather than raising the legal age.
In other words, you will have to work more to validate a quarter. Currently, an income equivalent to a gross monthly minimum wage is sufficient, so that “four quarters can be validated without having worked twelve months in the year”, observes Jordan Bardella in his work. The president of the RN recommends “bringing the validation of the quarters closer to the reality of the work and the contributions paid”, so that the duration of activity corresponds more closely to the 40 to 42 years required for a full pension.
If the idea consists of “gradually strengthening the conditions for validation of a quarter”, exceptions will be made to “preserve periods linked to maternity, illness, disability or life accidents”, but also “to maintain the starting facilities for long careers”, he specifies. This measure is presented as “a fair compromise”, both “demanding and protective”.
The president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella accuses, in his new book Governing published on Wednesday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his supporters of being “promoters of uprooting and replacement” of the “historical people” of France by “another people” from immigration. Promised to Matignon in the event of Marine Le Pen's victory in the presidential election, Jordan Bardella devotes a chapter of his work to the Insoumis candidate at the Élysée and his concept of “New France”.
Jordan Bardella first believes that “the leader of LFI is banking on large metropolises and Islamized suburbs to consolidate his presence” and accuses him of “assuming the role of ayatollah of a Muslim electorate that he considers stigmatized and singled out” to “seek to arouse division and resentment”. But “France knows the weight of the civil war too well to accept the speech of its promoters,” he adds.
Then he jokes about Jean-Luc Mélenchon “comfortably installed, from his grand Parisian boulevard, waiting to be replaced himself” and who “watches the demographic shifts on the other side of the ring road, seeing in it a final electoral opportunity and a new political people to be built”.
The mayor of Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) and presidential candidate Karim Bouamrane is preparing to publish L’Espoir ou le Mépris (Éditions Plon). In this work, the socialist returns to his origins and his program for the country. “The value of work is a popular value,” he defends on RMC this Wednesday. Before drawing up the following observation: “Work no longer pays”. “We need to be able to implement training and studies that are totally in line with the reindustrialization of the country and AI,” argues the mayor.
To promote his book, the councilor is inviting several socialist figures to his commune this evening: the former head of state, François Hollande, the social democratic candidate, Raphaël Glucksmann and even the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, weakened since his defeat in the primary a month ago.
This Wednesday, the president of the National Rally (RN), publishes his third work in two years, Govern (Éditions Fayard). “I wanted to share who we are and what we are going to do if we win,” insists Jordan Bardella on RTL. The thirty-year-old reassures that in the event of victory for the four-time presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, he “will lead government policy”. “I will be the next prime minister,” he defends. And promises again: “We form a ticket”.
In his work, the MEP details the program he intends to implement in the event of victory. Regarding the social anger that has shaken the country for a month, he affirms that “the response will not come from the streets, but from the ballot boxes”, and commits to “massively lowering energy taxes”.
Hello and welcome to this live. Strikes, demonstrations and political reactions: follow with Le Figaro the day before the day of mobilization on Thursday, November 5. At the call of the main trade union organizations, public and private employees, retirees and young people are expected in the processions to demand pay increases and defend employment and public services. After three Saturdays of protest against the high cost of living, this new day of action must maintain pressure on the government. Throughout the day, find the latest information from our journalists in the field and the responses from political leaders.
