“It is important to show Macron and the whole political world that we are prepared to defend our social rights,” Joshua Antunes, a 19-year-old student said. He also accused the president of “inactivity” on environment issues.
Marchers carried banners reading “Retirement Before Arthritis”, “Retirement at 60, Freeze Prices” and “Macron, Get Out”
“The government has got to deal with the purchasing power problem by raising wages,” Philippe Martinez, the head of the hardline CGT union, told Reuters before the rallies. read more
Macron won a new five-year presidential term after beating far-right challenger Marine Le Pen in last Sunday’s runoff vote.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who came third in the first round of the presidential vote, attended the Paris march.
He wants to rally a union of the left, including the Greens, to dominate parliament and force Macron into an awkward “cohabitation”, but so far this has not materialised. read more
“We will not make a single concession on pensions,” Melenchon said before the march started.
He said he still hoped an agreement to build a new union of the left could be reached by Sunday evening.
Unlike in previous years, Marine Le Pen did not lay a wreath in Paris at the statue of Joan or Arc, whom her party uses as a nationalist symbol. She was replaced by the Rassemblement National Interim President Jordan Bardella, who said Le Pen was preparing for the legislative elections.
Le Pen urged voters in a video message to elect as many deputies from her party as possible in June so that she could “protect your purchasing power,” and prevent Macron from carrying a “harmful project for France and the French people”
The parliamentary elections will be held on June 12 and 19.