All-black-clad protesters harassed marching lawmakers and supporters of France’s moderate left Socialist Party (PS) on Thursday, marring Paris’s Labour Day procession as hundreds of thousands rallied across the country.<\/p>\n
International Workers’ Day rallies across France drew more than 300,000 on Thursday, including 100,000 in Paris, the CGT trade union told AFP, while police put the total figure at 157,000.<\/p>\n
Police said the Paris procession, where an AFP journalist saw protesters covered up in black clothing roughly jostling PS politicians and activists, drew 32,000.<\/p>\n
While the march in the capital largely passed off without incident, Socialist lawmakers complained of being assaulted in with punches and flares, leading to dozens of arrests in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
“Everyone hates the PS,” chanted the protesters, some of whom were carrying far-left anti-fascist flags, according to the AFP correspondent.<\/p>\n
The PS is regularly accused of betrayal by the radical and hard left.<\/p>\n
Socialist deputy Jerome Guedj, who quit a rally against Islamophobia on Sunday after being targeted by anti-Semitic invective, had to be escorted away from the procession.<\/p>\n
“They hit people and charged, throwing several flares,” Guedj told AFP, blaming anti-fascist activists.<\/p>\n
Four Socialist activists and deputies were lightly injured, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau told the BFMTV broadcaster, denouncing the “absolutely lamentable” incidents.<\/p>\n
The police said officers had detained 72 people, including 52 in Paris, and had placed 28 people in provisional custody, of whom 19 were held in the capital.<\/p>\n
Asked about the scenes, the CGT union’s chief Sophie Binet told television interviewers:\u00a0“These are acts of violence which are not welcome in our processions.”<\/p>\n
But nonetheless “this day of demonstrations was a great success, we’ve recorded 270 marches in all of France”, the trade unionist added.<\/p>\n
– ‘Worried about Trump’ –<\/p>\n
The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party sought to distance itself from the violence towards PS lawmakers.<\/p>\n
“We do not agree that political disagreements should be resolved like that,” said LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard, while asking the media to “stop imputing” actions to the party.<\/p>\n
As in 2024 however this year’s Labour Day took place with France’s trade union movement divided. <\/p>\n
Several unions, including the CGT, and youth organisations called for the marches to be “against the far right, for peace, liberty and social justice”.<\/p>\n
France’s far-right National Rally party is riding high in the polls, with its candidate predicted to top the first round of 2027’s presidential vote — even if veteran leader Marine Le Pen is forced by the courts to step aside.<\/p>\n
With the 100th day of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House just passed, Murielle Guilbert of the Solidarity union said the marches wanted to sound a klaxon “against the Trumpification of the world”.<\/p>\n
The trade unionist said she did not know “a single worker today who is not worried about what Trump is doing and rising racism”.<\/p>\n
Last May Day the CGT counted 210,000 protesters in France, including 50,000 in Paris, while the authorities put the total turnout at 121,000.<\/p>\n
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