About 250 rallies have been organised in Paris and different cities
Hundreds of individuals joined Could Day protests throughout France on Sunday to demand social justice and wage will increase and to push newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron to drop his plan to lift the retirement age.
Most rallies have been peaceable however in Paris police intervened after black-clad “Black Bloc” anarchists tried to erect a barricade in a road close to La Republique Sq., police mentioned. A McDonald’s restaurant and an actual property company on the Place Leon Blum have been additionally ransacked, their home windows damaged and rubbish bins set on fireplace.
The price of dwelling was the primary theme within the presidential election marketing campaign and appears set to be equally distinguished forward of June legislative elections that Macron’s get together and its allies should win if he’s to have the ability to implement his pro-business insurance policies, together with rising retirement age to 65 for 62
About 250 rallies have been organised in Paris and different cities together with Lille, Nantes, Toulouse and Marseille.
Within the French capital, commerce unionists have been joined by political figures – principally from the left – and local weather activists.
Marchers carried banners studying “Retirement Earlier than Arthritis”, “Retirement at 60, Freeze Costs” and “Macron, Get Out”
“The stronger the mobilisation for this Could Day, the more durable we can weigh on the federal government’s insurance policies,” Philippe Martinez, the pinnacle of the hardline CGT union, informed Reuters earlier than the rallies.
“The federal government has acquired to cope with the buying energy drawback by elevating wages,” he mentioned.
Macron gained a brand new five-year presidential time period after beating far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in final Sunday’s runoff vote.
Far-left chief Jean-Luc Melenchon, who got here third within the first spherical of the presidential vote, was attending the Paris march.
He needs to rally a union of the left, together with the Greens, to dominate parliament and drive Macron into an ungainly “cohabitation” however to this point this has not materialised.
“We won’t make a single concession on pensions,” Melenchon mentioned earlier than the march began.
He mentioned he nonetheless hoped an settlement to construct a brand new “fashionable union” of the left may very well be reached by this night.
In contrast to in earlier years, Marine Le Pen didn’t lay a wreath in Paris on the statue of Joan or Arc, whom her get together makes use of as a nationalist image. She was changed by the Rassemblement Nationwide Interim President Jordan Bardella, who mentioned Le Pen was getting ready for the legislative elections.
Le Pen urged voters in a video message to elect as many deputies from her get together as potential in June in order that she may “shield your buying energy,” and stop Macron from carrying a “dangerous mission for France and the French folks”
France will maintain parliamentary elections on June 12 and 19.
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