Hundreds of thousands of people gather in the streets of Paris and in other major cities for massive protests.
Unions make common cause with activists in demonstrations against a higher retirement age.
In several places, police clashed with demonstrators.
Paris marches the protesters along the classic protest route between Place de la République and Place de la Nation.
A small group of extremists have smashed windows at banks and shops in the French capital and police have responded by firing tear gas.
There is also violence in southern Toulouse, and in Lyon in the southeast at least one car has been set on fire.
“Show your displeasure”
However, the vast majority of participants around the country are marching peacefully to mark their dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron and the government’s new pension law.
– The law has been voted through but not accepted. There is a willingness to show their displeasure in peaceful ways as a response to it. I still hope they decide to withdraw the law, says 37-year-old academic Celine Bertoni in the city of Clermont-Ferrand in central France.
According to the organizers of the May Day demonstrations, France’s new pension laws, raising the retirement age from 62 to 64, are a threat to the rights of hard-fought workers.
Collected compartment
It is the first time since 2009 that all eight of the country’s largest unions have together called for protests.
– This workers’ holiday will take place under union unity and that alone is historic, says Frédéric Souillot of the trade union Force Ouvrière, the Workers’ Strength.