PARIS (Reuters) – Hundreds of individuals joined Might Day protests throughout France on Sunday to demand social justice and wage will increase and to push newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron to drop his plan to lift the retirement age.
The price of residing was the primary theme within the presidential election marketing campaign and appears set to be equally outstanding forward of June legislative elections that Macron’s celebration and its allies should win if he’s to have the ability to implement his pro-business insurance policies, together with rising retirement age to 65 for 62
About 250 rallies had been organised in Paris and different cities together with Lille, Nantes, Toulouse and Marseille.
Within the French capital, commerce unionists had been joined by political figures – principally from the left – and local weather activists.
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Marchers carried banners studying “Retirement Earlier than Arthritis”, “Retirement at 60, Freeze Costs” and “Macron, Get Out”
“The stronger the mobilisation for this Might Day, the more durable we can weigh on the federal government’s insurance policies,” Philippe Martinez, the pinnacle of the hardline CGT union, instructed Reuters earlier than the rallies.
“The federal government has bought to take care of the buying energy drawback by elevating wages,” he stated.
Macron received a brand new five-year presidential time period after beating far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in final Sunday’s runoff vote.
Far-left chief Jean-Luc Melenchon, who got here third within the first spherical of the presidential vote, was attending the Paris march.
He desires to rally a union of the left, together with the Greens, to dominate parliament and drive Macron into an ungainly “cohabitation” however to this point this has not materialised.
“We is not going to make a single concession on pensions,” Melenchon stated earlier than the march began.
He stated he nonetheless hoped an settlement to construct a brand new “standard union” of the left might be reached by this night.
In contrast to in earlier years, Marine Le Pen didn’t lay a wreath in Paris on the statue of Joan or Arc, whom her celebration makes use of as a nationalist image. She was changed by the Rassemblement Nationwide Interim President Jordan Bardella, who stated Le Pen was getting ready for the legislative elections.
Le Pen urged voters in a video message to elect as many deputies from her celebration as attainable in June in order that she might “shield your buying energy,” and forestall Macron from carrying a “dangerous challenge for France and the French folks”
France will maintain parliamentary elections on June 12 and 19.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon, further reporting by Yonathan Van der Voort, Noemie Olive, Caroline Pailliez; Enhancing by Angus MacSwan)
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