November 5 protest in Dijon, Digi Mart USA News (Dijon, France): The November 5 demonstration brought together between 6,000 and 10,000 people in Dijon, in the Côte-d’Or department, according to France 3 Régions. The event took place in a festive atmosphere, opened by an orchestra and accompanied by brass bands.
The Côte-d’Or prefecture said in a statement that “the declared demonstration took place calmly.” It reported 6,000 participants, while unions put the figure at 10,000. The movement was held under the slogan “for wages, public services, youth, employment and industry.”
The march began shortly before 2 p.m. with a concert called by the Orchestre du Nouveau Monde, whose musicians played anthems that have become emblems of social causes, including the Hunger Games soundtrack, the Star Wars theme, “J’ai deux passions” and “Bella Ciao.” Brass bands accompanied the procession until its end.
The procession left Place de la Libération, moved up Rue de la Liberté to Place Darcy, then along Boulevard de la Trémouille to Place de la République, before passing Place du 30-Octobre and ending at Place Wilson shortly after 5 p.m.
A Force Ouvrière union representative told France 3 Régions that he hoped the government would learn lessons from the day without stalling. A Sud-Solidaires unionist said the turnout gave real hope and that people wanted things to move and would not leave the streets immediately.
Many young people took part. One high school student said that students were not merely children protesting for nothing and that education concerned everyone.
Other demonstrations took place elsewhere in the region. In Montbard, about 300 people gathered according to the prefecture, and in Auxerre (Yonne), around 1,000 people took part.
In Besançon, in Franche-Comté, the mobilization drew 9,000 people. Nationally, the count ranged from 575,000 according to the Interior Ministry to 1.6 million according to the CGT union.
At the end of the day, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced a “social conference” to be held on Monday, November 9, in response to the demands.
France 3 Bourgogne noted that a strike by part of its staff on November 5 affected its television newscasts and web production, which explains why no article on the Burgundy protests appeared that Thursday.
