Two days before the first round of the early legislative elections, some 150 people demonstrated against the far right this Friday, June 28, 2024 in the city center of Auxerre.
“Seeing the rise of the far right in France, and everywhere in Europe, it’s quite frightening! The far right is very dangerous for the country but also for women, for the environment… We should all be shocked by the results of the European elections and react, demonstrate Not only the left but also the right and the Macronists, because the National Rally advocates hatred of others”, say Ewa, 19 years old, and Anne-Lise, 20 years old, both. students, in front of the town hall of Auxerre.
On the eve of the first round of early legislative elections and while the RN remains in the lead in the polls, some 150 people – including the ecologist candidate (New Popular Front) in the first constituency Florence Loury and the first federal secretary of the PS of Yonne Mani Cambefort – gathered against the extreme right at Place de l’Arquebuse before marching in the city centre.
“The RN, a threat to freedoms
individual and collective”
“Today, this gathering is a local initiative. We launched this call to come and demonstrate only four days ago and it is a great success,” judges Emmanuel Brondel, co-host of the Jeunes Insoumis d’Auxerre. Parties of the New Popular Front, CGT, MRAP (Movement against racism and for friendship between peoples), Free Thought, the Popular Assembly of Auxerre (ex-yellow vests), feminist or LGBT collectives… A dozen parties, collectives and associations responded to the call. But the mobilization was clearly below that of June 15 (editor’s notethe demonstrations organized by the inter-union, in some 180 cities in France, brought together 500 people in Auxerre and nearly a thousand in Yonne). Ewa and Anne-Lise also regret “not seeing more young people in the street”.
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At the head of the procession, however, they made themselves heard, after the leader of the Jeunes Insoumis denounced “the threat that the RN represents for individual and collective freedoms” and called for “the triumph of the social Republic at the ballot box”: “No fascists in our neighborhoods, no neighborhood for fascists”, chanted the young people as they entered the rue du Temple.
Punctuated by slogans hostile to the extreme right and several speeches along the route, the demonstration, bringing together people of all ages, crossed the city center in the greatest calm to Place Saint-Germain, via the prefecture.
Christophe Pacalet
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