The street, before the polls. French people, united, demonstrating, Saturday June 15, to try to repress an electoral groundswell which is preparing to propel the extreme right to power, for the first time since the advent of the Ve Republic. It is a meeting with history to which thousands of demonstrators throughout France wanted to go. Marseille, Strasbourg, Bayonne, Toulon, Nancy, Reims, Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand, Nantes, Valenciennes… 250,000 people, according to the police, 182 gatherings throughout the country were recorded by the CGT, which had called for demonstrations against the extreme right with four other unions, several associations and left-wing parties. Although most of the gatherings were held peacefully, some confrontations gave rise to 20 arrests in France, including 9 in Paris, and 16 police custody at the national level, including 5 in Paris.
Lots of people, young people, families with children, retirees, undermined, or animated, it depends, by a nagging double sensation. Between the dizziness of the aftermath of July 7, the date of the second round of early legislative elections, and the unquenchable desire to fight until the end. Wouldn’t it be rather with the last energy of despair, as the scenario seems so written? “ I don’t believe that the left can win these elections, but it can prevent the RN from having a majority. It could be the start of something,” advance Laurent Dolias. Is this really the dominant feeling? “Make a rampart!” “, ” It is not finished ! “, many others shout. In any case, at 54 years old, this history-geography professor from Aix-en-Provence came to Marseille in order to “being able to express yourself and not feel alone. »
“Please live up to it”
In the festive and dense parade which left the Old Port of Marseille at the very beginning of the afternoon and which brought together several thousand people, Axelle Beaumont, 27, went up the flow brandishing a homemade sign: “ Youth annoys the National Front “. “Revulsed by the fear of the transition to power” of the RN, “who will be able to let climate refugees die on our doorstep”the young woman welcomed the constitution of the New Popular Front ” with joy. All the values of the social left come together today and we know that, if we put political egos aside, it can work. But Nupes had failed, so we remained cautious. »
Since the multiple explosion dissolution decided by Emmanuel Macron, everyone still wants to believe in the start. “Meloni, Trump, Bardalla. Get me out of here! » proclaims the card handed out by Mélanie, 26, in Strasbourg, where the environmentalist mayor, Jeanne Barseghian, launched the demonstration with a : “Faced with the endangerment of human rights, we will not give up! » “I march to be numbered, continues Mélanie. To show that we are there for the New Popular Front and also say to them: “please live up to it.” »
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