Marches in France for early May, with legislative elections as the backdrop

A political and violent May Day in France. In discussions on the agreement the united left for the upcoming legislative elections in June, but changed into a soap opera, without Marine Le Pen in front of the monument to Joan of Arc and the anarchists “Black Bloc”, “infiltrating “the demonstration of workers in the Plaza de la Nación and the construction of violent barricades, it was a “wild march” and unauthorized.

Violence prevailed in the march along with the Black Block, which broke the official demonstration. A firefighter was attacked by a protester while trying to put out the fire, at the corner of Rue Alexandre Dumas and Boulevard Voltaire. There was the destruction of Mc Donald’s, fronts of banks, insurance companies and multinational chains.

Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin denounced the “unacceptable violence” of “casseurs” (vandals) on his Twitter. Firefighters denounced the violence of the victims when they tried to set them on fire. A scenario that was repeated last year.

“The cassseurs were coming to disrupt the demonstrations on May 1 especially in Paris, by initiating unacceptable violence. I followed closely. Full support for the mobilized police and gendarmes, guarantees the freedom of expression and public order ”, said the minister.

At least 250 marches are in France while union kiosks sell bouquets of white muguet, the flower of the day.

Violence

The Parisian demonstration began on Sunday after 2:30 pm from the Place de la République, with a banner “for peace, freedom and against the backwardness of society”.

The march is supposed to arrive in Plaza de la Nación, at the call of the inter-union CGT-Unsa-FSU-Solidaires, accompanied by student and high school organizations Unef, VL, MNL and FIDL , with requests for issuing salaries, public services, social protection and ecological migration.

But he was disturbed by the circumstances when anarchists entered it and his violent methods. Police sirens and tear gas filled the area as shutters were lowered in open spaces.

A “wild march” broke out in the demonstration. The young people wore black clothes, mask and gloves headed to boulevard Richard Lenoir, not authorized by police. There were clashes with police on that street, Place de la Bastille, Boulevard Voltaire and Place de la Nation.

On the streets adjacent to Boulevard Voltaire, protesters tried to build a barricade with palisades. The hammer shattered the insurer’s window.

On the same boulevard Voltaire, in León-Blum square, demonstrators who were present attacked a McDonald’s, most of the windows were broken and covered with stickers. Projectiles, including fruit, were thrown at security forces. Police tried to disperse them with tear gas.

A number of brands, mostly McDonald’s, insurers, real estate agencies or banks, were damaged while a car was being attacked.

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The May 1 celebration fell when France has not yet finished his electoral process and before the legislative elections on June 12 and 19.

When Jean Luc Mélenchon left seeking to join to become the next prime minister of France, in a forced residence with Emmanuel Macron, if the united left won a parliamentary majority.

After Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s message at the start of the parade on Place de la République, announcing that an agreement between his party and the leftist parties was “a few millimeters away”, Sandrine Rousseau, the environmentalist , wants to believe it.

“If it can. It will happen. It will be historic.” judged the environmental leader on the march.

In the context of difficult negotiations to reach an agreement for the entire left before the legislative election, Julien Bayou spoke on Friday of the possibility of the left marching under a “common flag”“to support unions”.

But Jean-Luc Mélenchon downplayed these enthusiasts a bit: “The family photo of May 1 is not the theme! The theme is the content of the social program we will apply”.

But the unions marched, which opposes pension reformat age 65 proposed by Emmanuel Macron, re -elected president.

Pension reform

Pension reform is also one of the points of tension today, which is “quite strange this year because it will come a week after the re -election of Emmanuel Macron”, stressed the general secretary of the CGT, at the head of the procession .Philippe Martinez.

Asked about the messages addressed to the President of the Republic, the head of the CGT replied: “the messages, he knows them: more pay, quality work, not retirement at 65 but retirement at 60 “. For him, a new mobilization is possible as soon as “before the start of the school year, because the level of dissatisfaction with pensions or salaries is very high.”

“We are firmly opposed to any kind of increase in the retirement age,” said FO General Secretary Yves Veyrier, who was present at the demonstration.

“Politicians are playing their game in legislative elections. What we think, in the face of the power in power, it is through struggles that will happen”, said Solidarity leader Simon Duteil.

For Unsa, its deputy general secretary Guillaume Trichard stressed the issue of purchasing power, which “will be covered by the presidential elections and will be covered by the legislative ones.”

The union of the left

May Day also has particular meaning for the left, which is present in dispersed ways, in the context of difficult negotiations to reach an agreement for legislative elections.

Mélenchon (LFI), who spoke at a podium in Place de la République when the march was moving, and Olivier Faure, from the Socialist Party, were at the appointment. But not all socialists wanted to join Mélenchon’s collective, minus the party’s “elephants”. There was serious friction between them and mistrust.

In 2021, organizers claimed more than 170,000 protesters marched, including 25,000 in Paris. Now the Ministry of the Interior counted 106,650 protesters in Franceincluding 17,000 in the capital.

The march is being specifically investigated by the left, as political parties negotiate a deal for legislative elections.

“The First May mobilization should be as numerous as possible. The citizens, beyond the unions, they must take to the streets to the needs of society and environmental issues are becoming noisy and clear, ”CGT Secretary General Philippe Martinez told Le Parisien on Saturday.

Within

The demonstrations gathered 1,900 people in Bordeaux according to police (4,500 according to organizers), 3,600 in Marseille and 3,500 in Toulouse, according to police, or even 1,500 to 2,500 in Strasbourg, according to sources.

Under the Marseille sun, with the flag “for popular union”, Martine Haccoun, a 65-year-old retired doctor, went “to show that we haven’t given Macron a blank check in five years. We want to block Mrs. Le Pen.”

In Lyon, 4,000 to 6,000 people marched. A stronger mobilization than last year, “despite the school holidays,” said the secretary of the department of UD CGT du Rhône, Joao Pereira-Alfonso. “But the context this year is that employees are mobilizing against government attacks,” he explains.

Leading the demands of the inter-union CGT-Unsa-FSU-Solidaires, along with the student and secondary education organizations Unef, VL, MNL and FIDL, “the issues of wages, public services, social protection and environmental change”according to a statement on April 7.

CFDT, the main union in France, stands out by organizing a “May 1 climate-focused”.

In the view of the unions, the pension reform, as President Emmanuel Macron lowered the legal exit age to 64 and then to 65, a key point of your program.

The unions ’concern was even greater when the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, did not step down on Monday with the 49.3 weapon in Parliament, a procedure that forced him, so that the reform could be adopted.

PB