France's unemployed march through Paris to make their voices heard

Several dozen unemployed French, who have led a nationwide march through the country since June, arrived in festive fashion in Paris on Saturday afternoon. Their request to meet with Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to discuss the country’s unemployment crisis has thus far gone unanswered.

Reuters

A handful of organisations participated in Saturday’s protest, which finished at Place Stalingrad in the east of Paris with speakers and concerts planned for the afternoon.

Members of the National Movement of the Unemployed waved yellow flags and held a banner reading: “Hollande, the other country of unemployment,” in a reference to President François Hollande, who has seen a plunge in national employment levels during his time in office.

Marchers say they feel invisible and want to give other unemployed people a voice. They are calling for the urgent creation of a social fund and a stop to layoffs at the national unemployment service, Pole Emploi.

More than three million people in France are currently looking for work.

A core group of around 40 people have participated in the nationwide march that started on 17 June, with 200 people joining in at one point.

Danielle Simonnet, a left-wing candidate for Paris’s municipal elections, criticised members of the right-wing and socialist parties for not coming out to support France’s job seekers.

"Neither Nathalie Kosciusko-Moriz nor Anne Hidalgo are interested in this march by our country’s unemployed, even though unemployment is our number one problem," she said.