“It’s a great May 1,” the CFDT leader Laurent Berger launched this Monday early in the afternoon. In fact, it is almost historic: 2.3 million people demonstrated in France according to the CGT, the largest May Day crowd since 2002 and the demonstration to “block” Jean-Marie Le Pen, then in the second round of the presidential elections.
“This May 1st is one of the strongest in the social movement,” Sophie Binet, the new general secretary of the CGT, also greeted, recalling that this day was also the thirteenth day of inter-union mobilization against the pension reform.
But if they went beyond a classic May Day, the first figures seemed to indicate that it would not be the “tidal wave” expected by the unions.
The police counted 16,300 demonstrators in Caen (40,000 according to the CGT), 8,700 demonstrators in Strasbourg (15,000), 7,300 in Lille (15,000), 11,000 in Marseille (130,000), 13,500 in Toulouse (100,000), 15,000 in Brest (33.0 00 ) and 14,000 in Clermont-Ferrand (25,000).
In the capital, the march, punctuated by clashes between demonstrators and police, brought together 550,000 people according to the CGT, a high figure but far from the 800,000 (119,000 according to the police) on March 23, for example.
A “historic union unity”
This workers’ day “takes place in the union unit and that alone is historic”, rejoiced the general secretary of FO, Frédéric Souillot.
In fact, the last May Day parade united with the eight main unions dates back to 2009, in the face of the financial crisis (the CGT had counted about 1.2 million protesters, the police 456,000). In 2002, the unions also came together to “block” Jean-Marie Le Pen and around 1.3 million people responded to the appeal.
In 2011, after another pension reform enacted five months earlier, the May Day parade was not a huge success. Two months after the entry into force of the text, 350,000 protesters march in France according to the CGT, and 195,000 according to the Ministry of the Interior.
The same in 2016, in the midst of the fight against the labor law. Only 160,000 demonstrators were present in the streets of France, according to the CGT and 97,300 for the Ministry of the Interior.
On May 1, 2019, a few months after the start of the mobilization of yellow vests, the CGT had counted 310,000 demonstrators throughout France, including many wearing the fluorescent chasuble. The Interior Ministry had identified 164,500 people on the streets.
Source: BFM TV
