Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France on Monday morning for a May Day that was both “festive” and “combative”, with unions mobilising to show that they are not giving up the fight against pension reform.
“This May Day is one of the strongest of the social movement,” said CGT union secretary general Sophie Binet; her CFDT counterpart Laurent Berger praised “a very big mobilisation”.
But although the number of people taking to the street was greater than in previous years, the first figures show that it was not the “tidal wave” of support hoped for by unions.
Police reports estimate that there were 8,700 demonstrators in Strasbourg (east, 15,000 according to the unions), 7,300 in Lille (north, 15,000), 11,000 in Marseilles (south, 130,000), 13,500 in Toulouse (south-west, 100,000) and 14,000 in Clermont-Ferrand (centre, 25,000). The authorities are counting on 500,000 to 650,000 people throughout the country, including 80 to 100,000 in Paris.
Air traffic was disrupted with 25 to 33% of flights cancelled at France’s biggest airports – a movement that is expected to continue at Paris-Orly on Tuesday.
In processions, the demonstrators affirmed their determination to obtain the withdrawal of the reform.
Demonstrators marching in Paris here on International Workers’ Day amidst protests across France against the pension reform. May 1st is a public holiday in the country for Fête du Travail, and is often marked by rallies, protests and demonstrations for workers pic.twitter.com/dx58zDwt0t
— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) May 1, 2023
The last unitary march with the eight main trade unions was in 2009, in the face of the financial crisis (the CGT grouping had counted nearly 1.2 million demonstrators, the police 456,000).
In 2002 (900,000 to 1.3 million people), the unions had also joined forces to “block” Jean-Marie Le Pen, a historic figure of the French far right, who had qualified for the second round of the presidential election.
