Protests in France over Hollande's first year in power
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E-mail Xinhua, May 6, 2013
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People participate in a demonstration in Paris, France, May 5, 2013. As the Socialists mark their first year in office, tens of thousands of protesters marched in towns across France on Sunday against president Francois Hollande's growth and job policy. (Xinhua/Etienne Laurent) |
As the Socialists mark their first year in office, tens of thousands of protesters marched in towns across France on Sunday against president Francois Hollande's growth and job policy.
Some 180,000 demonstrators chanted "resistance" in the Square of Bastille, expressing their refusal of the government's labor deal, retirement plan and austerity measures, the Left Party's figures showed.
According to police's data, only 30,000 people participated in Sunday's protest that was led by Jean Luc Melenchon, the head of the hard-left party, the Greens and the communists who backed Hollande a year ago to occupy the Elysee Palace for five-year mandate.
"The test period is over and the account is not there ... If you know how to do, we, we know... It is us who begin with this demonstration, the insurgency that our republican homeland needs," Melenchon told protestors.
"We do not change our mind, we do not want the world finance in power. We do not accept the austerity policies that leads our people, like all of Europe, to an endless suffering," added the former candidate to 2012 presidential election.
In May 2012, Hollande, the Socialist president in 17 years defeated his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy on pledges to create higher wealth and more jobs.
A year after, the Socialists were on the hot seat dogged by a limp economy that risks to slide into recession and an unemployment which hit all-time high to more than 3.2 million people out of jobs.
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