Europe May Day rallies urge peace, honour workers, protest against governments
- Residents, trade unions took to the streets on Sunday for this year’s May 1 march, with protests planned across the continent’s cities
- Besides work issues, peace was an underlying theme with calls for an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Citizens and trade unions in cities around Europe were taking to the streets on Sunday for May Day marches, and put out protest messages to their governments, notably in France where the annual holiday to honour workers was being used as a rallying cry against newly reelected President Emmanuel Macron.
May Day is a time of high emotion for participants and their causes, with police on the ready. Turkish police moved in quickly in Istanbul and encircled protesters near the barred-off Taksim Square, where 34 people were killed in 1977 during a May Day event when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building.
On Sunday, police detained 164 people for demonstrating without permits and resisting police at the square, the Istanbul governor’s office said. At a site on the Asian side of Istanbul, a May Day gathering drew thousands, singing, chanting and waving banners, a demonstration organised by the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey.
May 1 is a public holiday in many countries across the world and Sunday saw rallies from Athens to Colombo.
In Italy, after a two-year pandemic lull, an outdoor mega-concert was set for Rome with rallies and protests in cities across the country. Besides work, peace was an underlying theme with calls for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Italy’s three main labour unions were focusing their main rally in the hilltop town of Assisi, a frequent destination for peace protests. This year’s slogan is “Working for peace.”
