French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called unions and employers to a social conference on Monday after nationwide demonstrations over wages and purchasing power on Thursday, November 5. The Interior Ministry counted 575,000 protesters, while the CGT union estimated 1,573,000 — leaving sharply different assessments of the day’s scale.

Two counts, and a broader movement

The figures come from different sides: the Interior Ministry gave the official count, while the CGT, one of the unions involved in the protests, put the crowd at nearly three times that size. The ministry also counted 193 separate demonstrations, compared with 227 on October 31, 289 on October 24 and 430 on October 17. Those are counts of events, not people, and do not resolve the gap in the turnout estimates.

The movement began with school pupils and students protesting conditions in schools and shortages of teaching staff. It has since widened to include workers and public-sector employees, among others, with demonstrators raising low pay and public services they said were short of resources. Protesters also said wages had not kept pace with inflation.

There is a similar split over school disruption. The Snes-FSU, a secondary-education union, said nearly 1,000 high schools were blocked or administratively closed. Matignon, the prime minister’s office, counted 81 affected schools out of about 3,700. The two figures have not been reconciled.

What unions want from the talks

The CGT is demanding a 10% increase in the Smic, France’s statutory minimum wage. The CFDT, another major union, is seeking a net increase of €100. The unions’ demands go beyond the students’ original focus on education and put pay directly on the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

Lecornu announced a conference with unions and employers at Matignon; Matignon said it would address purchasing power and wages. The announcement sets up a discussion between organised labour, business and the government; it does not establish whether the minimum wage will rise or what any eventual measure would be.

Clashes reported alongside demonstrations

The Interior Ministry said 448 people had been arrested, 53 police officers were injured and firefighters were called to 86 fires. In Paris, in.gr reported that police used tear gas and charged across Place de la Nation to allow firefighters to reach a fire. The reported incidents accompanied a day whose central demands were higher wages and better-resourced public services.