They were thirty Saturday June 15, activists of the far-right group Des Tours and Des Lys as well as sympathizers, to gather at Place Jean Jaurés, in Tours, for a “gathering for the family“. The purpose of the demonstration was to denounce, on the public highway, what these activists present as “academic theories that promote a counter-society and seek to tear down a model that has existed for millennia with one biological man and one biological woman“. Thus they refer to theories of gender as well as the transition process.
The prefectural gathering lasted one hour, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. and ended half an hour before the Pride March scheduled for the same day in Tours.
LGBT flags displayed in response to the rally
A coincidence that is not a coincidence, the spokesperson for the identity group assuming to base itself on the date of the Pride March to denounce a date which in fact serves as “a flower bed” to promote a “counter-society project”. If the first quarter of an hour of this demonstration did not arouse much emotion among passers-by, very quickly, on the other side of the tram tracks which cross the square, several people booed the speech and shouted “No passaran” before starting with more than ten people ” down with the fascists, we don’t want the fascists.”
Among them, Mael and Sacha, 17 years old, were heading towards the esplanade of the Chateau de Tours to join the Pride March procession, when they decided to stop andextend LGBTQIA+ flags against far-right activists. “We raised this flag as an affront to their homophobia“claims Mael, who says he is outraged to see such a demonstration authorized by the prefecture. Sacha preferred, in his own words, “slander against these people.” When we see how many there are and how many people there are at the pride every year [Marche des fiertés NDLR], they don’t scare me. But we have to go walking all the same, because that still exists in 2024 and that’s not normal. That revolts me.”
Anna Bonnemasou-Carrère
