During the movement of January 31, 2023, 1,272 million people went down to the street, according to the Ministry of the Interior, and 2.8 -milion according to the CGT.
By decoders
The protest movement against the pension reform project intensified during the second day of mobilization, Tuesday January 31. The CGT estimates that they were 2.8 million throughout France, versus 2 million on January 19. The Interior Ministry counted 1.272 million demonstrators (compared to 1.12 million on January 19). A crowd which narrowly exceeds that measured at the peak of the 2010 mobilization (1.25 million demonstrators).
For thirty years, few social movements have mobilized more than a million people on the street, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
Most were linked to the reforms of the pension system (in 1995, under the government of Alain Juppé, in 2003, under François Fillon, then in 2010 during the Woerth reform), but the mobilizations were also strong against The creation of the first hiring contract (CPE) in 2006, or the reform of the Labor Law in 2016.
The graph below summarizes the crowds of the largest social demonstrations that have been the subject of a national count of the Ministry of the Interior. The unions generally advance much higher figures, but it also happens that they do not communicate an assessment across the country.