Up to three million march in French mass protest

In a record turn-out, as many as three million people hit the streets in France on Thursday (19 March) to protest against the government’s economic policies in response to the global crisis, according to union estimates. The numbers were closer to 1.2 million, say the police.

The country’s airports, trains, schools and public transport were disrupted by the mass demonstration – the second general strike faced by France in two months.

The event mobilised more people than the similar one in January when between one and two million people protested in France’s cities.

The country’s eight main trade unions, who had called for the protests, demanded that the government react.

“I cannot believe the government will stay immobile in the face of a phenomenon of this size,” Bernard Thibault of the General Labour Confederation said on state television France 2.

“If things continue like this, the marches will get bigger,” Bernard van Craeynest, the leader of trade union CFE-CGC, was reported as saying by Le Monde.

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