Blazes ignited on Parisian roads amid heated conflicts over pension changes, resulting in reports of numerous officers injured nationwide.
Protesters expressed their fury towards French President Emmanuel Macron’s disliked pension reform on May Day.
French law enforcement confronted radical demonstrators and instigators who shattered bank and store windows, initiating fires as unions urged the president to abandon an increased retirement age.
Banks and bus stops sustained damage, bikes were set ablaze, and officers were targeted with objects following Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 last month.
Videos also depicted an injured officer lying on a burning road in the French capital.
French authorities employed drones to capture footage of the chaos. A Parisian officer was gravely wounded by a Molotov cocktail, with 19 others hospitalized and 108 officers injured throughout France, as reported by officials.
The number of possibly injured protesters was unknown. Clashes were also observed during protests in Lyon and Nantes.
“Violence is increasingly strong in a society that is radicalizing,” the interior minister stated on BFM-TV news channel, accusing the ultra-left. He claimed around 2,000 extremists participated in the Paris demonstration.
Tear gas enveloped the final destination of the Paris march, Place de la Nation, where an enormous dark cloud ascended above the trees after extremists set two fuel containers alight outside a building renovation site, according to police.
The fire that darkened the facade was later reignited.
Labor rights are commemorated worldwide on May 1, and activists observed the day by marching in the streets, demanding increased wages, reduced work hours, and improved working conditions.
Approximately one million individuals protested across France, with 500,000 assembling in the streets of Paris.
However, the General Confederation of Labour (France) contends that the number is significantly larger, with 2.3 million demonstrators nationwide.
There were also reports of police clashes in Lyon and Nantes.
French union members were joined by organizations advocating for economic justice, or simply expressing resentment towards Macron’s perceived detached, pro-business leadership.
International labor activists were also in attendance, including Hyrwon Chong from the South Korean Metal Workers’ Union.
