French May Day rally vents ire against pension law

People angered by pension law and nurses demanding economic justice took to streets across France and the United Kingdom on Monday to mark the May Day, joining the worldwide workers' rally in an outpouring of discontent not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

French police charged at protesters and troublemakers smashing bank and shop windows and setting fires as unions pushed the president to scrap a higher retirement age.

Protesters took to the streets across France on Monday to oppose the pension reform despite the fact that President Emmanuel Macron had already signed the reform into law on April 15, a day after the country's top court, the Constitutional Council, approved major pension reform measures.

Police used tear gas at protesters in several cities, including Paris, where an officer was injured after being struck in the face by a Molotov cocktail reportedly thrown by a masked Black Bloc anarchist on the sidelines of the march.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that 108 police officers had been injured and 291 arrests were made across the country, including 90 in Paris.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne condemned the violent actions by some protesters.

According to the French Interior Ministry, there were 782,000 protesters, including 112,000 in Paris.

"The government has lied. It has money for war, (but) not for pension, not for hospital, for education," Mike from Paris, who only wants to be identified by his first name, said at Place de la Republique, the starting point of Monday's march in Paris.

Regis Frutier agreed, saying the rich have become richer in France.

Frutier is not sure if the mass protest on Monday will have an impact on the pension reform which has already become law. "But we are for resist. It's our duty," said Frutier, who belongs to the CGT, one of the largest unions in France.

Meanwhile, nurses in England staged their biggest strike so far in their pay dispute on Monday, with hospital leaders warning that services would come under severe strain and the public being urged to use the National Health Service "wisely".

Some nurses who work in accident and emergency, intensive care and cancer services joined the picket lines for the first time.

The Royal College of Nursing members in more than 100 NHS organizations started 28 hours of strike action that ran from Sunday evening until late on Monday, in the widest nursing strike to face the NHS so far, reported the BBC.

The strike went ahead despite a new NHS pay offer from the government that is expected to be approved by most health unions this week.

A meeting on Tuesday between unions, ministers and NHS bosses was scheduled to discuss whether to accept the government's offer of a 5-percent pay rise and one-off bonus. The RCN is among the unions to have voted to reject the deal.

Elsewhere, South Koreans pleaded for higher wages as did others around Latin America. Spanish lawyers demanded the right to take days off. Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon marched in a country plunged into economic crisis.

Contact the writers at chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn.