Overview
- Olivier Faure, the head of France’s Socialist Party, was surrounded and hit with flour during Friday’s May Day march in Amiens as some chanted “Le PS dehors” and “Casse-toi, sale traître,” with several masked participants and one wearing a hammer-and-sickle scarf.
- Faure had been walking at the back of the procession with newly elected mayor Frédéric Fauvet and senator Rémi Cardon when the union Force Ouvrière split from the march mid-route to protest his presence.
- Local outlet Ici Picardie reported that revolutionary far-left groups, including the Union communiste libertaire, prepared the action, though that attribution remains limited in wider coverage.
- Socialist group leader Boris Vallaud condemned the methods on X as unacceptable, and Faure stayed on site speaking with attendees after the incident.
- The episode echoes similar targeting of Socialist figures during May Day 2025 in Paris, underscoring recurring friction between institutional left parties and more radical activists at France’s labor rallies.