RTTue, 01 May 2018 21:05 UTC
© Thomas Samson / AFPProtesters at the annual May Day workers' rally, in Paris, on May 1, 2018.
Police in Paris have used water cannons to break up a tumultuous rally. Amid May Day demonstrations, hooded individuals have been throwing smoke bombs and setting vehicles on fire in the French capital.
Live feeds from Paris showed chaotic scenes, as police attempt to disperse violent protesters while redirecting crowds of peaceful marchers to side streets. Loud bangs are heard in the background as smoke and tear gas billow down the streets.
Police pushed back against the rioters, peppering the crowd with tear gas grenades from behind riot shields and hitting the crowd with water cannon. Protesters lobbed firecrackers at the advancing force, as well as picking up and throwing back some of the gas canisters. Armored police vans and fire trucks are backed up advance.
Earlier, law enforcement
tweeted there were around 1,200
"hooded and masked" individuals among the May Day demonstrators at the Pont d'Austerlitz bridge in central Paris. On Monday, police warned of possible clashes with far-left anarchists, after calls to make it a
"revolutionary day" appeared on social media.
The rioters have torched several vehicles and vandalized shop fronts, including reportedly throwing a petrol bomb through a McDonald's window.
France marks Labor Day as President Emmanuel Macron finds himself in a protracted battle with unions and students over his reform plans. Railroad workers have been striking since mid-April, angry at plans to freeze salaries, cut over 120,000 jobs, and employ more private contractors.
Students have previously occupied several universities across France, protesting Macron's move to reform the education system, including introducing new admissions criteria and ranking young people who apply to public universities.
Emmanuel Macron, who has remained unmoved by the protests and vowed to proceed with the reforms, is not in Paris to witness the unrest, having flown to Australia for a state visit.
Comment: In fairness, Labor Day is not a riot everywhere. In Russia, for example, which has 'been there, got the t-shirt' with respect to implementing extremist ideology, Labor Day is a family affair at which
national flags, not Karl Marx banners, are waved:
© Maxim Shemetov / ReutersMay Day rally at Red Square in Moscow, Russia May 1, 2018.
By design, probably, but the "Emperor" was give an opportunity to flex his muscle, for the concern of the people, to keep them safe from those "terrorists". Did he do no, he sold out to his globalist friends, if there is such as friends in pathological self interests
Looks to me more like a Psy-op.
It is all too easy, and lazy in political terms to call them terrorists of democracy, and as a result call them all terrorists. The go too word in the political system of today.
But the reality, after much media manipulation of the Presidential election in France what is emerging is that, he is nothing more than a puppet for the great Chess game of geopolitics.