PARIS, May 2 — French bakeries sold crusty baguettes and flaky croissants with government backing yesterday, defying labour unions arguing that May 1 should remain a day of compulsory rest.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu ordered several baguettes for lunch in front of the cameras in the village of Saint-Julien-Chapteuil in central France.

“Let’s have several... at least four,” he said, as he sought to promote a new bill to clearly exempt independent bread and flower shops from mandatory rest on Labour Day.

French bakeries opened with government backing on Labour Day, despite unions arguing May 1 should remain a compulsory rest day. — AFP pic

It is also a day for unions to organise marches and protests. Police said 158,000 had joined the activities across France and the interior ministry added that 15 people had been arrested. The main CGT union said 300,000 had taken part.

Under French law, “May 1 is a public holiday and a non-working day”. Essential services — such as hospitals and hotels — can remain open but must pay their staff double.

But there has been confusion about whether bakeries can make their employees work.

Labour inspectors on the public holiday in 2024 reported five bakers to the authorities for operating.

Although the bakers were all acquitted last year, their plight sparked debate across France.

The government earlier this week encouraged bakers to work on May 1, saying they were “indispensable to the continuity of social life”.

The debate over whether independent bakers, florists and other small traders should be allowed to employ staff on May 1 has taken on a national dimension in recent weeks, with the government indicating that bakers and florists may open with their staff as of this year, before a bill formalises the arrangement from next year. — AFP pic

It also said florists could employ staff to sell fragrant lily of the valley, which is traditionally sold on Labour Day in France.

On Wednesday, the cabinet put forward a bill — that has yet to go to a vote in parliament — to allow both bakeries and florists to open on the first day of May, provided staff volunteer to work in writing and are paid double wages.

The government decided not to back a previous proposal for more businesses including butchers and fishmongers to open on the public holiday.

‘Hands off May 1’

The country’s main unions argue that no employee is truly free to volunteer when they are seeking to keep a work contract.

They fear French workers will soon all be required to work on the holiday as exceptions gradually become the rule.

“Hands off May 1,” read the poster of a hard-left activist at a May Day protest in Paris.

CGT leader Sophie Binet criticised “employers who feel entitled to open all their businesses and make their staff work on May 1, even though it’s not allowed”.

Clients wait in line in a bakery in Quimper, western France, on May 1, 2026. — AFP pic

“The government must ensure that the law and the rule of law are upheld,” she said, leading the protest in the capital.

She added that the public holiday was not however her chief concern.

“It’s not the stealing of May 1 that should be on parliament’s agenda. It’s a major plan to raise wages,” she said.

Some came to protest in costume.

A man dressed as a late 18th-century revolutionary held a pike topped with a picture of the US president, billionaire Donald Trump.

A woman protester nearby was dressed as Marie-Antoinette, the queen executed by guillotine during the French revolution.

According to folklore, when she was told the poor were running out of bread, she responded: “Let them eat cake”. — AFP