French far-left opposition party leader Jean-Luc Melenchon drew tens of thousands to a rally on Saturday against President Emmanuel Macron’s labor reforms, aiming to reinforce his credentials as Macron’s strongest political opponent, reports Reuters.
Trade union protests against Macron’s plan to make hiring and firing easier and give companies more power over working conditions seem to be losing steam, but Mélenchon said his “France Unbowed” party was calling on unions to join them and together “keep up the fight”.
“The battle is not over, it is only starting,” Melenchon told the crowd gathered on the Place de la République where the rally against what Melenchon has called “a social coup d‘etat” ended.
In a warning to Macron, who has said he will not bow to street pressure, Mélenchon said: “It is the street that defeated the kings, it is the street that defeated the Nazis,” while the crowd chanted “Resistance! Resistance!”
It remains to be seen whether Mélenchon and his party have the capacity to mobilize the kind of street resistance which forced the last two presidents to dilute their own attempts to loosen the labor code.
Mélenchon tweeted that over 150,000 demonstrators had turned up while police put the number at 30,000.
A campaign rally in March, weeks before the presidential election, drew some 130,000 people, party officials had said.