This Sunday will be a special May Day for the unions. It “timely”, according to Philippe Martinez, the boss of the CGT, seven days after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron and a few weeks before the legislative elections.
Unions and associations are calling for demonstrations everywhere in France for the traditional International Labor Day. Between 100 and 150 assembly points are planned in the country, according to CGT Confederal Secretary Céline Verzeletti. The Parisian demonstration will leave at 2:30 p.m. from Place de la République, heading for Place de la Nation.
“Vast Gathering”
“It takes a large gathering for citizens to be heard, the ballot boxes are important but the street is essential,” said Tuesday on RMC the secretary general of the CGT, for whom the social movement “cannot wait for the start of the school year” in September to challenge the executive. “There have to be people in the street on May 1. It’s an exceptional event, a week after the election of the President of the Republic. (…) I invite everyone to come and demonstrate”, he hammered this Saturday on France Inter.
“Everything is not played out now, but it is an important moment, a sensor so that we can feel the capacity for mobilization for the future”, estimates for his part the secretary general of the FSU (Unitary trade union federation), Benoît Teste. , interviewed by France info.
According to a police source, the mobilization should be at last year’s level, “between 90,000 and 100,000 participants throughout the national territory”. The fact that May 1 falls on a Sunday and during school holidays could be a brake on the involvement of employees and students, we recognize at the CGT. In 2021, the organizers had claimed more than 170,000 demonstrators, including 25,000 in Paris. The Ministry of the Interior had meanwhile reported 106,650 demonstrators in France, including 17,000 in the capital.
At the forefront of the demands of the CGT-Unsa-FSU-Solidaires inter-union, joined by the student and high school organizations Unef, VL, MNL and FIDL, “the questions of wages, public services, social protection and ecological transition,” according to a statement released earlier this month. Unlike last year, Force Ouvrière did not sign this national call, even if the secretary general, Yves Veyrier, will participate in the press briefing before the Paris demonstration.
The pension reform in the viewfinder
In the crosshairs of trade unions: pension reform, while re-elected President Emmanuel Macron has made the decline in the legal retirement age to 65 a key focus of his program. Their concern is all the more acute since the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire did not rule out, on Monday, using the weapon of 49-3 to have the reform adopted. “It’s the opposite of dialogue and consultation, it’s a forceful passage (…). All the fine words are summed up in this remark by the Minister of the Economy”, commented Philippe Martinez, who does not hardly believes in the Head of State’s promises to change methods.
“During this May 1, we will bring our demands on social rights and say that, starting on a pension reform with a decline in the age to 65, it is not understandable. Even if Emmanuel Macron has made very small concessions at the end of the campaign”, abounds Murielle Guilbert, co-delegate of Solidaires, with Franceinfo.
“Citizens, beyond the unions, must take to the streets so that social and environmental demands are loud and clear around three major themes, that of wages, that of employment and that of Social Security”, adds Philippe Martinez in an interview with Parisian.
The five representative confederations (CFDT, CGT, FO, CFE-CGC, CFTC) are in contact to “see what is possible in terms of common expression” on the subject of pensions, according to Céline Verzeletti. These thoughts could lead “next week”, she said.
Environmental issues in focus
Associations and NGOs mobilized on environmental issues will also be present, at the call of the group Never again. “For social and climate justice, we will be in the streets on Sunday May 1 alongside our association and union partners from the alliance for an ecological and social rupture Never again!”, tweeted Greenpeace.
“Let’s not wait 5 more years for the climate, also argued the NGO in a press release published this Saturday. The outgoing president, Emmanuel Macron, has just been re-elected. Without illusions about new promises on ecology , we are determined to fight today for climate and social justice. The IPCC reiterated this again a few weeks ago: strong climate action is urgently needed, not in three or five years , but right now.”
The New Anti-Capitalist Party, led by Philippe Poutou in the presidential election, and which won 0.77% of the votes cast, is also planning a tribute to Alain Krivine, a member of the party who died last March.
The authorities will also be attentive to calls from the ultra-left and the ultra-right, while the latest demonstrations on May 1 have been marred by incidents. Last year, union activists and vehicles were targeted at Place de la Nation in Paris.