the essential
More than 150 young people, students and thirty-somethings met at Place Arnaud-Bernard on Tuesday January 7 to take part in a “popular festival” on the day of the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the National Front, at the age of 96 in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine).
Place Arnaud-Bernard in Toulouse was cordoned off by the police (national police), Tuesday January 7, from 8 p.m., to watch out for any excesses during a rather calm gathering of more than 150 young people, students or thirty-somethings who came to participate in a “popular festival”, the initiative of which was relayed on the Instagram account of the independent media Mirail en Lutte.
“We did not agree with Jean-Marie Le Pen’s ideas”
In this gathering, a feeling of “relief” emerges from the discussion of a group of students from Jean Jaurès University (Mirail). “We are not here to celebrate a death, we are more celebrating the fall of an ideology that he represented, full of hatred, with people who suffered from it, it is to them that we want to pay tribute” , confides a student Méline. “It's always sad when you die,” continues her comrade Elya. “We didn't agree with the ideas shared by this character. It's like a relief to no longer have to hear these ideas. It's also a moment to come together and say, ok, we managed to move things forward, that's reassuring.”
The demonstrators responded during the day to the call of the Mirail collective in struggle, as soon as the news of the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen was made official. Anti-fascist rallies “to celebrate the death” of the far-right leader were also organized in Paris and Lyon.
