2023-05-02 10:20:00
ON THE SPOT – The popular mobilization was again massive for this May 1st which merged with the 13th day of protest against the pension reform. More people in the streets, more violence too: nearly 300 people were arrested in France.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, 108 injured are to be counted among the police, including 25 in Paris. A police officer was seriously injured following the throwing of a Molotov cocktail. If there is no official report of demonstrators injured in the processions, the intensity of the exchanges with the police suggests a high figure, with varying degrees of injury.
In Nantes, a 28-year-old demonstrator had his hand torn off by a disencirclement grenade. A teenage girl was hit in the eye. In Lyon, 6 demonstrators were injured. In Grenoble, 5 demonstrators claim to be injured by baton blows.
This extreme tension was also illustrated in scenes of urban degradation within several French cities, with in particular many fires: a Parisian building was set on fire.
Throughout the day, throwing of projectiles from demonstrators (including cobblestones in the capital) responded to tear gas canisters used in astronomical quantities by the police and the gendarmerie.
Continuation of the movement?
This very unconventional May Day raises questions about a possible resumption of social movements in France. Nearly 2.5 million people marched, mostly in the major cities of France, including 600,000 in Paris.
One particularity is that the violence has not only been the prerogative of the inevitable black bloc present at these meetings since the last days of anti-retirement reform mobilization: the outbursts have multiplied beyond the usual front lines, with participants with uncovered faces.
The unions have distanced themselves from this violence, denouncing the instrumentalization “by violent groups that have nothing to do with the fights we are fighting”according to Sonia Paccaud, departmental secretary of the CFDT.
In a press release, the CGT confirms in its eyes the renewed popularity of the movement, denounces “the social imposture of the National Rally” and claims the success of a “union unity since 2009 for a May Day” : “the page” is not rotated, according to the union.
The leader of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, for her part, strongly condemned the violence which she equates to “assassination attempts against the forces” order and whose authors deserve “to be brought before the Court of Assizes”.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI) affirms that “Macron is no longer listened to” and “the mobilization is growing”again calling on “withdrawal !” of the reform and denounces a “Authoritarian and anti-working class constitution” in reference to the controversial decision of the Constitutional Council to validate the bill.
The Europe Ecology-Les Verts group, for its part, held “alongside the inter-union”, also demanding the abolition of this law.
Two deadlines are to come: on May 3, the decision of the Constitutional Council about the second draft Referendum of shared initiative will be rendered. On June 8, the examination of the bill to repeal the “pensions” text, tabled by the group Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-Mer et Territoires (LIOT), will be carried out.
The inter-union will meet on its side on May 2, to decide on the continuation of the social movement and the next mobilizations to come.
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