Several thousand people gathered against the far right on Thursday evening at Place de la République in Paris, three days before the first round of the legislative elections in which the National Rally is the clear favorite.
Gatherings also brought together a few hundred people in Lille (around 300), Marseille (around 150) and Rennes (around 680), AFP journalists noted.
In Paris, speeches by personalities, activists and mini-concerts (Acid Arab, Les Goguettes, etc.) alternated during a festive event called by the media (Mediapart, Politis, Arrêt sur images, etc.). ), unions (CFDT, CGT, Confédération paysanne, FSU…) and associations (Attac, Greenpeace, Abbé Pierre…).
Actress Corinne Masiero read elements of the New Popular Front (NFP) program on stage before proclaiming, while the audience clapped their hands, the Italian refrain “Siamo tutti antifascisti”.
Video messages from comedian Guillaume Meurice and ex-footballer Vikash Dhorasoo were broadcast, while other personalities, such as director Alice Diop, intervened to defend the “freedoms” to “create, exist, love , express yourself, demonstrate, inform, believe”, the watchword of this gathering.
“What will happen to our mixed cultures, to the richness of our cinema, to our music, to our children’s reading? What will they watch on privatized television”, also asked actress Judith Godrèche on the scene.
CGT leader Sophie Binet, whose organisation called for a vote for the NFP, stressed the “gravity” of the moment during an intervention, briefly interrupted by an action by activists from the far-right feminist collective, Némésis, which led to some jostling.
“I am worried about what will happen on Sunday and July 7. This is not a demonstration that will change things, but we hope…”, Ambre Fouillade, an 18-year-old law student, told AFP.
“I’m here for anti-racism and freedom of the press,” stressed Paul Mongault, 21, a railway worker, aware that “it’s also the younger generations who are making the RN rise.”
In Rennes, at the rally organised at midday at the call of the CGT, CFDT, FO and Solidaires, Wilfried Lemaréchal, general secretary of CFDT Ile-et-Vilaine, came to “say no to the threat that the RN poses to democracy”.
In Lille, demonstrators, including many employees in the health sector, called for “the unity of employees, students, retirees and immigrants”.
“We must keep hope to change what people experience on a daily basis. In my circle there is an awareness of the danger with the RN. I have friends who were not going to vote and who are mobilizing,” assured Sophie Frochisse, 36, an employee retraining in the medical and social sector.
Numerous rallies and demonstrations against the far right have been held since the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9.
