Violent altercations and charges at French May Day demonstrations turned protest against Macron

The French unions have succeeded in bringing to the streets of the country hundreds of thousands of people on the occasion of may 1. The “party” for International Workers’ Day has become a new test of strength against the pension reformthe thirteenth since the beginning of January.

The objective of the marches, as the unions have recalled, has been, above all, to reiterate the rejection of the working class to the pension reform, promulgated on April 15, which delays the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 years old, and who has managed to keep the unions together.

The leaders of the main unions, which they have paraded together (something that had not happened on May 1 since 2009), they have described this mobilization as “historic”, although a part of the informative prominence has once again been capitalized on by violent groups.

The General Confederation of Labor (CGT) claims that there were 2.3 million protesters across the country (550,000 in Paris alone). If so, it would be the second day with the highest participation since the movement against the pension reform began on January 19. In contrast, the Ministry of the Interior records 782,000 protesters throughout the country and 112,000 in the capital.

Although the marches have developed without incident in the vast majority of the 300 that had been organized throughout the country, there have been various riots in Nantes, Lyon, Toulouse and, above all, in Paris.

In the capital, skirmishes were continuous throughout the entire route of the demonstration between the Plaza de la República and the Plaza de la Nación between the forces of order and radical groups, who smashed shop windows and windows of shops or financial institutions and burned containers and all kinds of street furniture.

These altercations have been responded by police charges, tear gas and the use of pressurized water cannons to disperse the rioters. These water cannons have also been used to put out a fire that started in a building in the Plaza de la Nación.

During these violent acts, a total of 180 police officers have been injured. One of them serious for burns caused by the impact of an incendiary cocktail.

Extensive police deployment

The French authorities have reported this Tuesday that at least 540 people have been arrested in the framework of the protests registered during the last day in the main cities of the country and have placed more than 400 injured policemen and gendarmes.

The forces of order have used drones to supervise the marches, an issue that has generated controversy in the previous days and that has given rise to judicial appeals to avoid it, on the grounds that these devices would curtail public liberties. According to the Prefecture (government delegation) of the Rhône department, the use of drones has led to the arrest of around thirty people causing incidents in Lyon.

The authorities have indicated that only in Paris have they been injured 259 people, while 61 demonstrators are already injured, 31 of them in the capital, according to information from the BFMTV television network. “Where is the condemnation of Jean Luc Mélenchon against the attacks against police officers?”, the minister pointed out, in a renewed attack on the leader of France Insoumise, whom he has accused of remaining equidistant and not condemning the violence, according to information from the newspaper ‘Le Figaro’. “His silence from him makes him an accomplice,” he said.

Protests also in Italy or Türkiye

In Italy, some Turin protesters have taken advantage of today’s march to show their rejection of NATO. Workers in the Italian railway sector have maintained a 24-hour stoppage since yesterday, which has caused delays and cancellations, to demand higher wages and better working conditions.

Same claim as nurses in the UK or teachers in Germany. And in Turkey, the police have arrested 35 demonstrators in the capital when they tried to gain access to Taksim Square, a symbol since on May 1, 1977, the security forces murdered almost fifty workers.