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“Resistance”, “impeachment”: the left marches against Macron
The faded dream of seeing the left at Matignon, the widely shouted wish to imagine Emmanuel Macron dismissed and the “anger” at a vote deemed flouted: thousands of left-wing demonstrators marched in France on Saturday against “Macron’s coup de force”. With some 150 mobilizations planned throughout France, the left, led by LFI, has chosen the streets as a warm-up for a political autumn that promises to be hot. “Denial of democracy”, “the French did not vote for this”, “let him (Macron) resign”: in the marches, the same words, often, to express the indignation, the resentment and the anger at the nomination of LR Michel Barnier as Prime Minister, a post that Emmanuel Macron refused to Lucie Castets, the candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP), who came out on top in the early legislative elections in July. Cindy Rondineau, a 40-year-old photographer and her partner Aubin Gouraud, a 42-year-old farmer years old have a very left-wing heart but say they are not used to demonstrating. On Saturday morning, they nevertheless traveled from Chaumes-en-Retz to Nantes – a good thirty kilometers – to demonstrate because, they say, they are “really angry”. “We really feel like we are not being listened to as voters”, the couple say. “And on top of that, we are constantly being demonized.” Their 8-year-old daughter carries a sign saying “Macron you’re screwed, the CE2s are in the street” in the middle of a good-natured family procession that marched behind a banner “only one solution impeachment”. The demonstration brought together between 2,500 according to the prefecture and 8,000 participants according to the organizers. At the other end of France, the turnout was smaller in Nice. In a department where RN, LR and the Ciotti-RN union lists share all nine constituencies, between 900 and 1,000 people, depending on the source, demonstrated behind the banner “Let’s defend our democracy”. Flags of the rebels or Palestinians flapping in the wind, in Marseille, the organizers shouted into megaphones before the demonstration called by youth union organizations, the PCF, LFI and the Departmental Union CGT 13, set off from the Porte d’Aix. In the processions, young people with their hearts on the left came in large numbers. This day of mobilization was initiated at the end of August by two student and high school unions. “On Macron’s part, I think that no matter the outcome of the vote, he already had in mind who he wanted to put in power, I think he wanted a large-scale poll with the dissolution… the Fifth Republic is collapsing. I think that in any case, expressing one’s vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” castigates Manon Bonijol, 21, who came to demonstrate in Paris. From a Place de la Bastille that is not completely full, Abel Couaillier, 20, a student who campaigned for François Ruffin in the legislative elections, confesses to being “stunned” by the nomination of Michel Barnier: “an old elephant of politics who has nothing to do with the aspirations shown by the French”. “I am still young, I want to believe that we can change things and I will continue to go and vote, it is the only way we have to make things change,” he continues. Alexandra Germain, 44, a project manager, is more bitter: “It’s a dictatorship that is being set up. It’s been a while since we were listened to in the streets, now we are no longer listened to at the ballot box. Demonstrating is my only way of saying that I don’t agree, even if I am well aware that it serves no purpose.”grd-jdy-bur/hj
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