French and Riviera News Tuesday 28th March 2023

News

Strike - Trains are expected to be heavily disrupted today Tuesday 28th March and tomorrow Wednesday 29th March, due to strike action against the pension reform. However, the region’s bus and tram network Lignes d’Azur has announced a normal service despite the industrial action. France's civil aviation authority has told airlines at Paris Orly airport, as well as Marseille, Bordeaux and Toulouse airports, to cancel 20 percent of flights both today and tomorrow. According to the Paris public transport operator RATP, metros and suburban trains will be "badly disrupted".

About one third of primary schoolteachers have announced their intention to strike. Rubbish collectors in the French capital are continuing strike action, with close to 8,000 tonnes of rubbish piled up in the streets. Nearly 240 rallies and demonstrations are organized across the country.  The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Monday that "13,000 police and gendarmes" will be deployed throughout France to cover the demonstrations, 5,500 of them will be deployed in Paris, where the last demonstration was particularly violent.

Last Thursday’s strike action saw a record mobilisation in Nice where according to unions 40,000 demonstrators gathered and 4,200 people according to the prefecture. Today two demonstrations are planned: the first in Nice at 10am in front of the train station with the procession heading onto Avenue Jean Médecin, Boulevard Jean-Jaures and Place Garibaldi before ending on the port, Pl