Protests and baguettes side by side in Paris

TT

Updated 22.16 | Published 21.47

          

          

          

         French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu buys baguettes during a visit to a bakery in Saint-Julien-             Chapteuil, southwest of Lyon, on Friday.

         1 / 3Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/TT

Demonstrations and protests of various kinds took place around the world on May Day.

In France, according to the union, over 300,000 gathered in protests critical of the government, while the government allowed the sale of baguettes.

The international labor movement's holiday urged many to show their dissatisfaction with the current conditions.

In the United States, over 3,500 protests were planned with the theme "no school, no work, no shopping", to mark the importance of the holiday and at the same time criticize the attitude of large companies to working conditions, American media reports.

War money

European unions have united in a joint condemnation of the authorities in Washington: “Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said in a joint statement.

The organization includes 93 unions from 41 countries.

Police in Istanbul, Turkey, fired tear gas when large groups of demonstrators gathered. More than 550 people were arrested in the anti-regime protests, according to AFP.

Bread riot

Protests in France were “rather quiet, but angry,” reported the French newspaper Le Monde. Police estimated that nearly 160,000 demonstrators had gathered during the day, while union organizers said it was over 300,000. The demonstrators criticized, among other things, the government’s labor market policies and the permission given to bakers, among others, to bake and sell bread on the holiday.

According to French law, May Day is a public holiday when only certain essential workplaces, such as hospitals, are allowed to remain open.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu showed his support for the decision to sell baguettes, choosing to tell a bakery in front of cameras that he “wants to buy several, at least four baguettes.”