France stages May Day rallies a year after pensions backlash

France’s two main trade unions on Wednesday were once again united for May Day parades after last year’s politically charged march against the government’s unpopular pensions reform. 

People burn Olympic rings made with cardboard during the yearly protest marking International Labour Day, also known as May Day, in Paris on 1 May, 2024. AFP - ALAIN JOCARD

The CGT and CFDT walked side by side in processions in at least half of French cities, including Paris, under the scattered slogans of promoting peace, fighting austerity and calling for a “more protective Europe for workers” ahead of the EU’s elections in June. 

A total of 265 rallies were being held across the country.

Pro-Palestinian and anti-Olympics protesters swelled the ranks of many parades, while farmers complaining of excessive red tape with regards to environmental rules joined in. 

Police in riot gear stand in formation as they receive fireworks during a May Day rally in Nantes, western France, on 1 May, 2024. AFP - LOIC VENANCE

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Violence

In Lyon, 22 people were arrested and two police officers injured after hooded individuals attacked a bank. Similar violence also broke out in the western city of Nantes.

Twenty-five people were arrested in Paris on the sidelines of the parade before it had even set off. Authorities posted a tweet of weapons including a knife and a pair of brass knuckles that had been confiscated.

A police source told FranceInfo that authorities had been ready for both ultra-right and ultra-left demonstrators, with some 12,000 police and gendarmes deployed throughout the country – including 5,000 in Paris.

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Meanwhile MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, president of the EU parliament's left-wing Place Publique movement, was forced to leave a demonstration in the central city of Saint-Etienne after being chased by young protesters who pelted him with eggs filled with paint.

Glucksmann said he had been targeted by “small, violent groups” in an attack that was the result of "months of hatred and slander" cleverly orchestrated by the hard left.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and hard-left France Unbowed party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon both condemned the violence.

A protester shouts slogans during the yearly protest marking International Labour Day, also known as May Day, in Montpellier, southern France, on 1 May 2024. AFP - SYLVAIN THOMAS

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Lower turnout

Turnout is expected to be down on the record numbers seen during the 2023 International Workers Day rallies, when the country’s eight trade unions marched arm in arm against a plan – which has since become law – to raise the age of retirement. 

The previous time France’s eight main unions staged united May Day parades was back in 2009 during the financial crisis, when 1.2 million people protested.

After the pensions law was rammed through parliament by decree last year, between 800,000 and 2.3 million people (police and union figures respectively) took to the streets to vent their opposition – with some protests turning violent.