Today, demonstrations of trade unions and left -wing forces have been held in France. The trade unions decided that on May 1 it would be a good reason to make demands immediately after the presidential election and on the eve of the parliamentary elections.
The demonstration began at 14:30 on the square of the republic and took place relatively calmly. But in the last stages of the march, clashes of the more aggressive part of the crowd with the police began. Several shops and restaurants were injured, demonstrators tried to breed bonfires on the streets and build barricades, Kommersant reports.
France’s Ministry of Internal Affairs accused of skirmishes “assault columns”, Black Block, which went out into the streets specifically in order to challenge the police. “The pogroms arrived to interfere with the Pervomaisian demonstration, allowing unacceptable acts of violence,” wrote on his Twitter the Minister of Internal Affairs Gerald Darmanen.
The police counted about 107 thousand participants in manifestations throughout France. In Paris, there were about 17 thousand people on the streets, less than last year, when May Day in the capital noted 25 thousand demonstrators.