A million people gather on the Champs-Elysées in Paris to see the New Year

Plus d’un million people are affiliated with the manière inattendue to celebrate the beginning of 2023, after an outbreak of Covid-19 – the responses of parisiens l’ont qualifié de “resurgence” of the person’s cherchant in the same reunion and avant-garde from the future. Large gatherings 2024 Olympic Games.

The French authorities expected about 500,000 Parisians and tourists to flock to the street, as 340 kilograms of fireworks were launched around the Arc de Triomphe during a special concert at midnight.

But a million people from Paris, across France, and tourists from countries including the United States and Australia crammed into thick, maskless crowds on the street amid tight security. People were evacuated shortly after the fireworks ended after midnight.

The last Parisian New Year’s gathering on the Champs-Elysées on December 31, 2019 gathered 250,000 people. In 2020 it was canceled amid Covid restrictions. The meeting was suspended last year to prevent the omicron variant from spreading.

“If we take the broad ocean, it’s about two million people,” said Home Secretary Gerald Dormanen. “You’ve gone as far as you can go.”

90,000 police were mobilized in France to celebrate the New Year, and 490 people were arrested across the country on Sunday, compared to 441 the previous year. A report by the Ministry of the Interior said that there was a “historic” decrease in the number of vehicles burned, with 690 cars set on fire this year and 872 cars in 2021. In recent years, burning cars on New Year’s Day has become a major event. problem. Watch out for the police.

French President Emmanuel Macron used his televised New Year’s address to insist that 2023 would be the right time to change his pension – a key and controversial part of his election platform. Macron’s first drive to reform pensions was spurred by the weeks of protests and transport strikes that followed in 2019, just before the pandemic hit and put the changes on hold.

In the coming weeks, the French government is expected to announce how it plans to raise the retirement age – a raft of pension changes that could lead to clashes in the National Assembly, street protests and strikes.

“We have to work more hours,” Macron said. Details of his pension changes or his promised sweeping reform of the immigration system are not expected to be presented to Parliament anytime soon. He stressed that both measures are necessary in difficult times, calling for “unity, courage and collective ambition in France in 2023”.