FRANCE: Socialist leaders join tens of thousands of trade union members to mark May Day, a day mired in election politics as the final verdict on next president draws close

Record ID: 860168

  • Title: FRANCE: Socialist leaders join tens of thousands of trade union members to mark May Day, a day mired in election politics as the final verdict on next president draws close
  • Date: 2nd May 2012
  • Summary: SLATE INFORMATION
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2012 13:00
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  • Location: France
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  • Country: France
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3HNBWILYUL6GWQPN3S63DNKQZ
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  • Story Text: Tens of thousands of workers and trade unionists took to the streets of Paris on Tuesday (May 1) in the annual May Day celebration of workers' rights.
    The traditional event took place in a politically charged atmosphere, just days before the second round of the French presidential elections.
    The celebrations in south and east Paris risked being upstaged this year by a rally held by conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy on the other side of the city.
    Demonstrators poured scorn on what they saw as efforts by Sarkozy to upstage the traditional event -- some waved banners referring to his infamous gaffe where he insulted a man at an agricultural fair, telling him to "get lost".
    The event was used as a platform for political point scoring by both sides.
    Sarkozy has recently been accused of tacking to the right in order to secure the votes of National Front supporters, following an unexpectedly strong showing in the first round of the election by the far-right's Marine Le Pen.
    "France today is the only country, where the incumbent government is organising an anti-demonstration, an anti-May Day, going against the workers, the trade unions. I think that with this anti-May Day today Nicolas Sarkozy isn't the candidate of 'real work' but is a counterfeit Marine Le Pen candidate," senior Socialist figure Harlem Desir said.
    Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry was similarly dismissive of Sarkozy's May Day event.
    "I think we need to leave today to the unions. We still have a few days before the 6th of May but this crowd shows an expectation. The expectation of a crowd faced with an outgoing president who has done nothing for ... who has fought the unemployed rather than fighting unemployment, who has done nothing to create jobs, to boost growth," she said.
    There was a traditional rhetoric of the workers for many demonstrators at the event. One carried a banner showing solidarity with Greek and Spanish people suffering from austerity measures being introduced to combat the eurozone's economic woes.
    "This 1st of May is a workers' day, it's a trade unions' day," one trade union member, Alain Beghelli, said.
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