It was one of the highlights of the “third social round” announced by opponents of Emmanuel Macron. This Sunday, May 1, on the occasion of International Workers’ Day, a few tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Paris and in several other cities in France at the call of the inter-union CGT-Unsa-FSU-Solidaires, joined by student and high school organizations.
In Paris, the demonstration started shortly after 2:30 p.m., from Place de la République towards Place de la Nation. Main demands: issues of wages, public services, social protection and ecological transition.
Opposition to pension reform
The pension reform is also one of the points of tension of this day, which is “this year a little exceptional” because it comes a week after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, underlined at the head of the procession the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez. For him, a new mobilization is possible even “before the start of the school year, because the level of dissatisfaction with pensions or wages is very high”. Similar story for the secretary general of FO, Yves Veyrier.
“Politicians are playing their game on the legislative elections. We think it is that faced with the power in place, it is through struggles (…) that it will happen”, noted the head of Solidaires, Simon Duteil. As for Unsa, its deputy secretary general, Guillaume Trichard, emphasized the question of purchasing power, which “spans the presidential election and will span the legislative elections”. The CFDT, France’s leading union, for its part stood apart, unsurprisingly, by organizing a “May 1st committed to the climate”.
Figures from the left present
This 1st of May also has a particular meaning for the left, present in dispersed order in the context of difficult negotiations to reach an agreement for the legislative elections. “If the discussions do not end tonight, then it will never end,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France insoumise, present in the Parisian parade. “We have to go back to the campaign, there are 5 weeks left,” he insisted.
In recent days, negotiations with the ecologists, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, and the New Anti-Capitalist Party have experienced acceleration and successive blockages. “It’s progressing, be sure that we are doing everything in our power to make it move forward,” continued Jean-Luc Mélenchon, cheered by the demonstrators on his arrival at Place de la République. “We are doing everything to move forward not towards strengthening our group, (…) the subject is whether, yes or no, we give ourselves the objective of victory.”
A deal tonight? “Tonight, I’m sleeping,” replied, a few dozen meters away, Olivier Faure, the First Secretary of the PS. “There is no deadline, we have to succeed. We can clearly see that we are not that far from an agreement. We will continue to talk tonight”, he said before, shortly after, of shake hands with Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Tensions on the sidelines of the procession
Many clashes between the police forces and very mobile groups of young people dressed in black were noted by AFP on the sidelines of the Parisian procession. About twenty signs, mostly McDonald’s, insurers, real estate agencies or banks, were damaged, as well as a broken car.
Incidents between police forces and groups of young people on the sidelines of the May Day 2022 demonstration in Paris
afp.com/Alain JOCARD
Damage also took place in Nantes where ultra-left activists tried to lead the procession. “They committed a number of damages and there was the intervention of the police to disperse them,” said the prefecture. Responding to rocket fire by the demonstrators, the police used tear gas.
Gérald Darmanin denounced on Twitter “unacceptable” violence committed by “thugs” who came to “disrupt the May Day demonstrations, especially in Paris”. The Minister of the Interior also assured his “full support for the police and gendarmes mobilized”.
In a few numbers
Elsewhere in France, the parades gathered 1,900 people in Bordeaux (4,500 according to the organizers), 3,600 in Marseilles and 3,500 in Toulouse according to the police; from 1,500 to 2,500 in Strasbourg and between 1,650 and 2,000 in Rennes. Note that in Lyon, between 4,000 and 6,000 people marched: this is more than last year “despite the school holidays”, noted the departmental secretary of the UD CGT du Rhône, Joao Pereira-Alfonso . A total of 255 assembly points were planned in the country, according to 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 counted 106,650 demonstrators in France, including 17,000 in the capital.