On the occasion of the usual May Day demonstrations, the unions denounced on Friday the calling into question of the holiday and non-working nature of the day and urgently demanded salary increases, in the face of the return of inflation caused by the war in the Middle East.

Published on: 01/05/2026 - 04:27 Modified on: 01/05/2026 - 22:58

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Unions and demonstrators marched on Friday May 1 for wage increases against a backdrop of war in the Middle East and against the questioning of the public holiday and non-working nature of May 1, on a day when many bakers and florists put their employees to work, with the support of the executive.

“It is not the May 1 theft that must be put on Parliament's agenda. It is a big plan for increasing wages,” explained CGT leader Sophie Binet, alongside Marylise Léon, her counterpart for the CFDT, at the head of the Parisian demonstration procession.

In a letter to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Sophie Binet calls for an increase in the minimum wage of 5% and an indexation of salaries to prices.

Marylise Léon is calling for an increase in the minimum wage due to inflation but also “negotiations in the different professional branches”.

Lecornu and Attal on a bakery mission

To show their support for bakers who want to make their employees work - a new tolerance on May 1 - Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu went to Haute-Loire where he bought bread in a bakery and Gabriel Attal briefly went behind the counter of another in Vanves, near Paris.

“It is a provocation punishable by two fines,” says labor inspector and CGT manager Céline Clamme. “One for working on May 1st, the other for hidden work since volunteering is not authorized in a non-profit company.”

“We reasoned like a classic May 1st, there is no vagueness, the law has not changed,” said this official, mentioning controls in Isère, Maine-et-Loire, Île-de-France and Marseille, in particular.

“Politicians who go to a bakery, I think that it is part of a show policy which we do not need today. We need to show what the reality of an employee in a bakery is,” commented Marylise Léon.

Faced with the unanimous rejection of the unions, the government rejected a proposed law from Gabriel Attal aimed at expanding salaried work on May 1, by tightening it on artisan bakers and florists.

The executive clarified on Friday that it was “legitimate for there to be controls to verify that employees are voluntary and paid double”. In the event of a fine, “if the conditions are respected, there will be a solution in the law” assures the government.

On Wednesday, Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou called for “collective intelligence”, ensuring that he had not given any instructions to labor inspectors.

More than 300 gatherings

Some 158,000 people demonstrated across France on Friday in defense of the May 1 public holiday and for wage increases, including 24,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. The CGT, for its part, counted more than 300,000 demonstrators, including around 100,000 in the capital.

In Toulouse, between 5,500 people, according to the prefecture and 12,000 according to the CGT, demonstrated in the morning "for our salaries, for our pensions, against the extreme right and for peace", according to the banner at the head, which also stated: "Day of struggle since 1889, public holiday since 1947, May 1, you will not touch it".

In Lyon, the prefecture counted 6,500 demonstrators, in Marseille, 3,400 (compared to 3,600 last year). In Nantes, where 4,000 people, according to the police, marched, a police officer was injured in the face during incidents.

“If we really want to have influence next year for the presidential election, we need a huge balance of power in the streets,” says Anouar Bendahmane, 18, a political science student in Marseille.

Odette Monneron demonstrates in Paris at the age of 85. “We have to respect work. We live in a world where we want money to dominate and to have money, we are ready to do anything,” lamented this retired teacher, whose husband was a miner.

On Friday, a certain vagueness reigned in the streets where a few chain convenience stores in Paris and the Bordeaux metropolitan area were open despite the ban, AFP noted.

In Lille, baker Marianne Chevalier made her employees work, believing that "it doesn't bother anyone": "everyone is happy to work, 10 hours or five hours, knowing that we are paid double."

“We did not hesitate for a single second to open. There is no logic in why fast food restaurants can open and bakeries cannot,” testified Morgane, manager of a bakery in Mérignac, near Bordeaux, who did not want to give her full name, nor that of her establishment.

Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Bakeries and Pastries, assured that “70% of bakeries” would be open.

With AFP

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