Over 90,000 People Reportedly Take Part in Protest Against Pension Reform in Paris

PARIS (Sputnik) - Over 90,000 people took part in the demonstration against the pension reform in the French capital on Tuesday, according to the Paris police, while the CGT union estimated that around 450,000 citizens supported the protest, French media reported.

According to the police estimates, 93,000 people joined the demonstration in Paris, the BFM TV broadcaster reported, while almost 120,000 took to the streets last Thursday.

The CGT, in turn, said that today's numbers were around 350,000 lower than the 800,000 people announced during the previous nationwide protest.

The French Interior Ministry said around 740,000 people joined the protest rallies across France, according to the BFM TV. Last Thursday, the officials reported over a million protesters.

Last week, the visit of UK King Charles III to France, which was initially scheduled for March 26-29, had to be postponed due to mass protests.

On March 16, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that the government had adopted a law on raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030 by invoking Article 49.3 of the constitution, which allowed the bill to get passed without parliamentary approval. The decision sparked a strong backlash, prompting people to take to the streets across the country.

There have been several nationwide strikes and hundreds of demonstrations in France within the last two months, with over 1 million people taking part in most of them. During the protests, violent clashes often broke out between the police and the protesters.