Strong mobilizations while the National Rally is at the gates of power. Thousands of people gathered again Monday evening in several cities in France to express their opposition to the far right after its surge in the polls the day before and the announcement of an upcoming dissolution of the National Assembly.
Place de la République in Paris, 4,200 people according to a police Source in Le Parisien – 3,000 according to the police headquarters -, including many young people, gathered from 8 p.m., shouting, middle fingers raised: “Youth is boring the National Front” (ancestor party of the National Rally, RN) or even “Everyone hates Marine Le Pen”.
Alice, 24, a student, wanted to be there because, she said, “now the extreme right (is) at the gates of power”. “The prospect of having a far-right Prime Minister in three weeks terrifies me. » Alba Bourreau, 19, an arts student, is participating in her “first political demonstration”, after having voted on Sunday for the first time, saying she is “ready to come and demonstrate as much as necessary”.
In the surrounding crowd, Palestinian flags mixed with those of the CGT, Unef and other organizations that had called for the rally. Some demonstrators brandished signs saying “It’s going to be bad there”, in reference to the president of the RN Jordan Bardella. Rare incident to deplore during the rally: a demonstrator fell from the statue overlooking Place de la République and was “taken care of by the emergency services in relative urgency”, according to a police Source.
Several thousand demonstrators left in a procession shortly after 10 p.m., while the crowd dispersed on the square, towards the headquarters of the Ecologists where the left-wing parties were gathered with a view to finding an agreement for the legislative elections which will take place in less than of three weeks. As they passed, some electoral signs were vandalized and a few tags left on the walls: “Neither Macron, nor Bardella” or even “Macron-Bardella, same fight”, noted the AFP journalist.
The atmosphere was more tense shortly before midnight, with the police trying to disperse the procession with disencirclement grenades and charges.
In Marseille, France’s second city, which placed the RN list at the top during the European elections on Sunday, 2,200 people gathered at the call of several unions, left-wing parties and the Human Rights League. Man in front of the regional prefecture. “The extreme right in power will not let go, let’s fight them now!” » or “Popular Front: all united”, proclaimed hastily made signs. Many local elected officials, in tricolor scarves, were present.
Several thousand people also gathered in Nantes (4,400), Rennes (more than 2,500) and Rouen (800). In Nantes, the police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators and trash cans were on fire as the procession passed, which then split up peacefully, noted an AFP journalist.
“What happened yesterday was a shock. We don’t want to stay alone, we needed to see what the capacity was to mobilize against this,” said Marie, a 69-year-old retiree, in the Rennes demonstration. Maël, a 19-year-old student, indicated for his part that he did not want to “live in a France governed by the RN”, remembering that it would “not be the first time in history that fascism will come (it) to power through the ballot boxes.”
2,800 people in Bordeaux
In Bordeaux, some 2,800 people, according to the prefecture, also gathered at Place de la Victoire to the rhythm of drums and the melody of “Bella ciao”. “FN, RN of roots and hatred”, “No to the Hate era”, or even “Make racists afraid again”, we could read on the signs.
The atmosphere, however, galvanizes Julia T., 30 years old: “When I was little, I had witnessed from afar (…) the mobilization following the passage of (Jean-Marie) Le Pen in the second round (of the election presidential election of 2002, Editor’s note). Today it’s my turn to take to the streets to shout my refusal of a France turned in on itself,” said the 30-year-old young woman.
In Montpellier, Toulouse and Besançon, a thousand people also demonstrated. Among the Toulouse crowd, Matthieu Chêne, 30, for whom it was “essential to come (…) to be on the right side of History”. “I hope there will be a Popular Front. Roussel, Glucksmann, Mélenchon, everyone must put their ego aside! »
Incidents took place in the Pink City at the end of the demonstration: demonstrators briefly seized work equipment, broke windows and burned trash cans. The police used tear gas to disperse the crowd, noted an AFP photographer who witnessed two arrests.
In Strasbourg, there were 950 according to the police. “The far right has inoculated all the ranks of the National Assembly up to Macronie. (…) Let’s not let them do it! », Launched LFI MP Emmanuel Fernandes into the microphone. “We will take our responsibilities so that on June 30, we present ourselves as a united, humanist front,” promised the elected official.
