May Day demonstrations in Paris and German cities were accompanied by tension and incidents. In Paris, radicals vandalized the windows of several shops. In Stuttgart, according to the DPA agency, there were clashes between protesters and the police. In Prague, the Labor Day celebrations took place without violence.
Paris/Stuttgart/Prague/Athens
21:18 May 1, 2024
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profimedia-086938723_240501-211432_kac.jpg | Photo: Christoph Schmidt | Source: Profimedia, AFP
In the French capital alone, according to the police, 18,000 people took part in the May Day demonstrations, and in the whole of France, according to the French Ministry of the Interior, there were 121,000 people.
The tension at the head of the May Day parade in Paris is reported by the AFP agency, according to which a group of about 4,500 people formed with “several hundred” radicals. The security forces used tear gas. Police said they detained 45 people in Paris and 12 officers were injured.
According to AFP, several shop windows and bus stops were vandalized on Beaumarchais Boulevard in Paris. Other shop windows were sprayed. At least one person in black was injured in these incidents. The tension was also visible on Bastille Square, where a van and trash cans were set on fire and bus stops vandalized. Protesters threw stones at the police, who in turn fired tear gas.
Several small groups of masked or black-clad people damaged bank windows. One McDonald’s restaurant was also damaged. Some people broke in and took food, an AFP journalist reported.
Paris police estimated attendance at the capital’s rallies at 18,000, but unions say there were 50,000 demonstrators. Last year, according to the authorities, 112,000 people and, according to the unions, even 550,000 people demonstrated in Paris on Labor Day. The year before last, the authorities reported 24,000 demonstrators in Paris.
Peacefully in the Czech Republic
Events were also held in the Czech Republic, although without large numbers of people and violence. As in the past, many political parties used May 1st for their meetings, this year they also combined it with the campaign before the upcoming elections to the European Parliament.
On that occasion, mainly left-wing politicians recalled the legacy of Labor Day for the present, others the entry of the Czech Republic into the European Union exactly 20 years ago.
Anarchists and participants of the student majáles passed through the center of Prague, while in Zlín there was a May Day parade referring to Bať traditions. The May Day demonstrations took place peacefully, the police only had to deal with verbal conflicts between the communists and their opponents on Prague’s Strelecky Island.
Intervention in Stuttgart
More than 10,000 people demonstrated in Germany on Wednesday, according to DPA. The police in German cities are also prepared for possible night riots. Due to the tensions caused by the war in the Gaza Strip, there are concerns about pro-Palestinian events with banned anti-Israel slogans.
Thousands of police officers were prepared for possible riots by left-wing radicals during their evening event in the Berlin district of Neukölln. Police along the route of their planned procession, acting on tips from local residents, discovered caches of stones and roof tiles in the afternoon.
In Stuttgart, Germany, police broke up a left-wing demonstration in the city center when protesters attacked riot police. They used pepper spray and batons, police said on the platform X. In another post, the police talked about the number of crimes and violations of the terms of the assembly.
In Hamburg, far-left groups announced three traditional May Day demonstrations on Wednesday. One of the roughly 1,000-strong processions passed through the Schanzenviertel district in the early afternoon, and no serious incidents have yet been reported. According to the DPA, more than 6,000 people took to the streets of Hamburg with left-wing and far-left groups.
Parade in Athens
In Athens on Wednesday, hundreds of Greek workers took part in a May Day parade through the center of the metropolis demanding higher wages to bring them closer to the EU average. People also protested against the war in the Gaza Strip.
Many of the protesters who gathered peacefully outside the Greek parliament buildings held Palestinian flags and released balloons in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to Reuters.
Ships remained in Greek ports on May 1, and buses and the metro were shut down in Athens as transport workers joined a 24-hour strike called by Greece’s largest labor union just in time for Labor Day.
CTK
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