Fearing a loss in the lower house of Parliament, where he no longer has a majority, President Emmanuel Macron passed the landmark legislation raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 using a constitutional maneuver that enraged unions.
With the unions united for the May Day protest — for only the third time since 1945 — the turnout was expected to be large. The last time they united, in 2009, there were 1.2 million protesters nationwide. Nearly 300 rallies were to be held across the country with the main focus in Paris.
Since the pension measure was presented, there have been 12 days of protests and strikes across France, with violence often breaking out after sunset in the heart of many cities, including Paris, where demonstrators burned dumpsters holding trash that had piled up for days after a strike by garbage collectors.
With the Constitutional Court approving the law in mid-April, there is little the protesters can do, however, to stop its implementation. Macron’s lack of a parliamentary majority and his recourse to administrative means to pass laws has angered citizens who see his approach as anti-democratic.
Although the vast majority of demonstrators have been peaceful, authorities on Monday feared the presence of 1,000 to 2,000 aggressive protesters in Paris alone. Before the march, police in Paris set up checkpoints and released photos of weapons they had confiscated from marchers, including knives and fireworks.
Ahead of the trade union march, police said they were forced to intervene against a “pre-procession” to separate out a group committing numerous violations.
By 4 p.m., police in Paris said they had arrested 40 people.
In the run-up to Monday’s demonstration, several rights groups had accused the police of excessive use of force and disproportionate use of tear gas in previous demonstrations, especially the BRAV-M anti-riot unit.
Several regions authorized the use of drones by law enforcement agencies to monitor the May Day parades, including Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Le Havre and Tours, despite efforts to fight the measures in court.
“Given the damage, clashes with internal security forces and sabotage of video protection cameras found during some recent national days of inter-union protest, the prefect of the Gironde decided to strengthen the security of the course to ensure the best possible conduct of this important demonstration,” the prefecture said in a statement.
Before the start of the main marches Monday, there were reports of violence in Lyon with protesters damaging property and police firing tear gas. In Paris, members of the Extinction Rebellion group threw paint on the Louis Vuitton Foundation building.
Beatriz Rios in Brussels contributed to this report.