Labour Unions Reveal Reasons for Holding May Day 2026 at Monas

Monas is our own choice,” said Andi Gani during a press conference preparing for May Day 2026 in the Menteng area, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday (29/4/2026). He explained that initially there was an option to hold the event at the Main Stadium of Gelora Bung Karno (GBK). However, that choice was dropped because it was deemed to have barriers to interaction between Prabowo and participants. “Why didn’t we choose GBK? We considered the closeness to the President. The President wants to be close to the workers; he wants to shake hands with them,” he stated. According to Andi Gani, the stadium design like GBK, with fences and stands, would make it difficult for Prabowo to greet workers directly. Meanwhile, at Monas, the President can interact more freely. “If at GBK, how can he shake hands? Because there are fence barriers, stands, and so on. At Monas, he can be very close to the workers; he can come down and shake hands one by one,” explained Andi Gani. Besides the interaction factor, he mentioned that the location’s capacity was a consideration. Andi Gani revealed that the confirmed number of attendees reaches 400,000 people, while GBK’s capacity is limited. “GBK can only accommodate 79,000 people. Whereas our masses number 200,000 who will come to the May Day event later. So the only place that can fit is Monas,” he emphasised. “The confirmed number of masses is 400,000. So from workers 211,000, and there will also be online motorcycle taxi friends joining because the Father President will deliver a surprise tomorrow,” he added. Prabowo is scheduled to attend at Monas at 08:00 WIB. Andi Gani assured that there will be no distance or exclusive treatment between labour leaders and the President on stage. “Earlier I requested to the State Secretariat (Ministry of State Secretariat) that all Presidents of Labour Confederations sit together with the President on the main stage. No differences, all sitting together in the middle and it has been approved,” he said. To anticipate the large number of masses, Andi Gani also ensured the readiness of internal security teams from various labour union elements. This is done to prevent any infiltrators at the labour event. “We are concerned about infiltrations. And we assure that after this press conference we will hold a limited meeting with all labour leaders; we will act firmly against parties trying to tarnish the May Day celebration,” he concluded.