French police use tear gas and water cannon during May Day marches against Macron pension reforms | Abroad

In Paris, the first confrontations took place in the afternoon and 30 people were arrested. Social media shows how cars were set on fire. Windows of shops and banks were smashed in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse, among others.

According to France Info, an officer was seriously injured after being hit by an incendiary bomb. In the capital and other major cities, police used drones for the first time to monitor the situation.

“The vast majority of demonstrators were pacifist, but especially in Paris, Lyon and Nantes, police are confronted with extremely violent thugs who came with one goal: to kill police officers and attack other people’s property,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted. By 4:30 p.m., more than sixty arrests had been made.

Authorities expected 500,000 to 650,000 participants across the country, but according to union umbrella organization CGT, 550,000 people demonstrated in Paris alone.

Labor Day on May 1 is a national holiday in France. In recent years, more than 100,000 French people took to the streets at demonstrations on this day. The retirement age was recently raised by two years to 64 years. Trade unions have therefore called on people to once again take to the streets en masse. They hope that at least 1 million people will participate in the protests against the pension reforms this year.

Sophie Binet (of the far-left trade union CGT) said before the start of the protest that it has not yet been decided whether there will be talks with the government about other work-related files. “They cannot rule without the support of their people,” said the union woman.

The reformist trade union CFDT also complains that Macron refuses to listen to the demands of “one of the most powerful social movements in decades”. “We now have to put other proposals on wages and working conditions on the table,” chairman Laurent Berger told BFM TV.