The historic May 1st in France also left an unprecedented number of injured and imprisoned in recent decades: 540 people were arrested across the country, most of them in Paris, where there were more than 300, in addition to 406 police officers and 61 protesters injured in clashes between unionists and agents on the streets of the country’s main cities.
The unrest and social anger are mounting, indeed the country’s seven majority union groups announced that they will continue mobilizations and called for a new day of struggle and general strikes for June 6, which will be the fourteenth since last January becomes.
The night and early morning in France’s main cities, particularly Paris, was a constant siren of police cars and ambulances amid clashes and protests by workers and youth outraged by President Emmanuel Macron’s neoliberal policies. The commemoration of International Workers’ Day became a new national mobilization against the French government’s plan to reform the public pension system, which aims to raise the retirement age by two years from 62 to 64 and raise contributions to one year 42 to 43 to access a lifetime pension.
Therefore, yesterday’s protests and mobilizations marked a historic milestone in the country, they were the most massive in the 21st century and one of the most vigorous protests in recent decades. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin appeared with a worried gesture in front of the television channel BFMTV, where, in an interview, he told her the tally that the night of anger and fire produced in the country: 540 detainees, including 305. In the country’s capital, 406 were police officers and 61 protesters injured, some seriously and with third-degree burns.
French politician Darmanin, one of the men closest to Macron, attacked the leader of the indomitable left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whom he blamed for the radical factions of the protesters, who opposed each other with rocks and cocktails, Molotovs and sticks against the police. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon bears some responsibility for the situation of a police officer in Paris who could have died from his serious injuries after being hit by an incendiary device.” Darmanin also spoke of the “complicity” of political or trade union leaders , who do not condemn the violence, and stressed that without the intervention of the law enforcement officers, the demonstration on 1 there would have been social democracy”.
Despite the criticism they receive from the government, the seven main union groups held a summit in Paris to decide the future of the demonstrations. And the conclusion was unanimous: they will continue the protests pending a response from the government, which is being called on to withdraw its controversial plan to reform the pension system, approved by decree on April 15, to negotiate again. They also called for a new day of struggle and a general strike on June 6th.
(Adapted from La Jornada)