It was in Bressuire that the start of the demonstrations was given in the department, at 10:30 a.m. At the call of the inter-union (CFDT, CGT, FSU, UNSA, Solidaires, Confédération Paysanne) of Deux-Sèvres for to struggle against “against the extreme right and its ideas” before the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7, 2024 where the National Rally (RN) is given the lead in voting intentions according to several polls, nearly 150 demonstrators gathered at Notre-Dame Square to demand “a democratic and social surge”.
“We are here because there are values defended by the union organizations which are not those of the RN, such as respect for all, says Emile Brégeon, CFDT union delegate. At the CFDT we have long had the slogan “Choices of actions”, their actions, beyond what they hide, it is good to have a discriminatory society for women, for social rights…” The procession set off through the streets of Bressuire shortly before 11:30 a.m. Several speeches at the market concluded this gathering.
More than 250 people gathered in Thouars
On the Thouars side, the intelligence forecasts were correct, since 260 people gathered in front of the Thouars town hall, “one of the only symbols of the Republic that we have left in Thouars”specified Stéphane Dumoulin, secretary of the local union of the CGT.
Thouars mobilized 260 people against the far right.
© Photo NR
In front of the mayor of Thouars, Bernard Paineau, the regional councilor Emmanuel Charré, and other local elected officials, from the majority and minority Thouars citizens, the unions denounced “the danger posed by the extreme right” in front of a crowd who did not fail to warmly applaud the various forms of words. The crowd thus gathered did not plan to circulate in the streets of the city.
Around 1,200 demonstrators in Niort
In Niort, the gathering was scheduled for 1 p.m. at the bottom of Place de la Brèche “to block the RN while supporting the Popular Front”, summed up a demonstrator. Around 1,200 people responded to the unions’ call, 1,150 according to the national police, 1,500 according to the most optimistic activists.
Several representatives of four of the five organizations that called for this mobilization spoke. Before a happening produced by artists imitating and mocking a few right-wing media figures, such as the hosts Cyril Hanouna, kept on a leash by an equally false Vincent Bolloré, and Pascal Praud.
The procession set off a little after 2 p.m.: it crossed the pedestrian city center to the market halls, before following the Sèvre Niortaise, reaching avenue de La Rochelle then the Clou-Bouchet district: an hour later , while having lost a few units, the demonstrators found around twenty others who had gathered on Place Raoul-Auzanneau at the call of the France Palestine 79 association. New speeches, more political, took place.
