The parade was interrupted after clashes between demonstrators and police. Around 1,500 people demonstrated Thursday evening in Rennes against the far right, at the call of an inter-union movement, noted an AFP journalist.
The demonstration, which attracted 1,500 people according to the Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture, was stopped in the city center after young protesters threw projectiles, provoking a jet of tear gas in response from the law enforcement. “A group of 80 elements positioned in front of the procession attempted to disrupt the demonstration, leading to seven arrests,” the prefecture said around 9 p.m.
“A gap of blood”
Previously, the inter-union CFDT FO CGT FSU Unsa had deployed a banner in the procession with the slogan “Against the extreme right, social response”. “We state our absolute opposition to reactionary, racist and anti-Semitic ideas and to those who carry them. There is historically a blood gap between them and us,” declared the general secretary of the FO union in Ille-et-Vilaine, Fabrice Le Restif.
According to Fabienne Portanguen, Solidaires Ille-et-Vilaine departmental co-delegate, “we must prevent the extreme right from coming to power, they have no place in government. The far right does not defend workers. We must fight their anti-social agenda,” she declared during the parade. Demonstrators displayed a sticker “No Bardella in Matignon”.
Since the announcement of the dissolution on Sunday June 9, several demonstrations have already taken place in Rennes, a student city anchored on the left. On June 10, up to 4,000 people, according to the prefecture, took to the streets in the Breton capital, while the next day there were 6,000 demonstrators according to the unions, 3,000 according to the prefecture. On June 15, there were 25,000 opponents of the far right according to the organizers, 12,000 according to the prefecture.
