A new social meeting, this Sunday, for the international day of the work of May 1st.
Tens of thousands of people are expected in the street, at the call of many unions and associations, which hope to make heard a week after the second round of the presidential election their wish for a more social and more ecological policy.
The unions hope to be followed, while the context seems favorable after the election of Emmanuel Macron: "The May Day mobilization must be as massive as possible... Citizens, beyond the unions, must take to the streets so that social and environmental requirements are raised loud and clear, ”said CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez in our pages this Saturday.
Read alsoPhilippe Martinez: “We need the widest possible mobilization on wages”
If some see this May 1, 2022, a few weeks before the legislative elections, a very political event, while the left-wing parties are working on an agreement to form a common bloc, the secretary general of FO Yves Veyrier sticks to social demands.
"I do not make it a political issue, but an issue of expression and clear claim", with in mind, "the rejection of the decline in the retirement age", he declared on France Inter this Sunday.
Pensions and salaries
The pension reform is of particular concern to public opinion, while President Emmanuel Macron has made the decline in the legal retirement age to 64, or even 65, a cardinal point.
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire did not rule out Monday using the weapon of 49.3 to have the reform adopted.
If FO did not sign the press release stating the demands of the CGT-Unsa-FSU-Solidaires inter-union, joined by the student and high school organizations Unef, VL, MNL and FIDL, the organization shares the main principles which They include: advancing “issues of salaries, public services, social protection and ecological transition”.
The unions also hope to reaffirm their demands for wage increases "We have long believed that the minimum wage deserves a boost", beyond indexing to past inflation, indicated Yves Veyrier, also in favor of agreements branch, in companies for everyone.
Associations and NGOs mobilized on environmental issues will also be involved, at the call of the group Never again.
In total, two hundred and fifty-five assembly points are planned in the country, according to CGT Confederal Secretary Céline Verzeletti, “twenty more” than last year.
Céline Verzeletti expects a good mobilization, even if this May 1st falls on a Sunday and during school holidays for zones A and C. The Parisian demonstration will leave at 2.30 p.m. from Place de la République, towards Place de la Nation.
Mélenchon, Bayou, Faure, Roussel in the streets
Many left-wing political figures are expected, first and foremost Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI).
The national secretary of EELV Julien Bayou should also parade in the capital, as well, no doubt, as his PS counterpart Olivier Faure.
The PCF presidential candidate, Fabien Roussel, will be in Lille.
In the context of difficult negotiations to reach an agreement from all the left in view of the legislative elections, Julien Bayou spoke on Friday of the possibility for the left to march under a "common banner", "in support of the unions".
But Mr. Mélenchon somewhat dampened these ardor in the JDD on Saturday: “The family photo of May 1 is not the subject!
The subject is the content of the social program that will be applied”.
In 2021, the organizers had claimed more than 170,000 demonstrators, including 25,000 in Paris.
The Ministry of the Interior had meanwhile reported 106,650 demonstrators in France, including 17,000 in the capital.
This year the CFDT, the leading trade union in France, is unsurprisingly standing apart, by organizing a “May 1st committed to the climate” on its side.
The authorities will also be attentive to calls from the ultra-left and the ultra-right, while the latest demonstrations on May 1 have been marred by incidents.
Last year, union activists and vehicles were targeted at Place de la Nation.
This year, the police expect in Paris some 300 activists and "up to a thousand yellow vests".
