Several hundred opponents of Jean-Marie Le Pen gathered on Tuesday in several cities in France to celebrate, with songs, smoke bombs and fireworks, the death of this historic figure of the extreme right.
“This dirty racist is dead”, said in Paris a sign brandished in the crowd of a few hundred people which formed at the start of the evening on Place de la République, and where a few flags of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA, far left) were flying. ).
“Youth piss off the National Front,” chanted participants, some of whom had climbed onto the central statue, while others launched anti-fascist slogans, AFP journalists noted.
There, as in Lyon, some fireworks were set off.
In Lyon, some 200 to 300 people gathered, noted an AFP journalist, at the call of the ultra-left, in order to “celebrate” after the death of Jean-Marie Le Pen, as he puts it. the call launched on the Rebellyon account, on X.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing justifies dancing on a corpse. The death of a man, even a political opponent, should inspire only restraint and dignity. These scenes of jubilation are simply shameful,” commented the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, on X.
The death of “a character we hate”
In Marseille, where between 200 and 300 people gathered in the Old Port according to AFP journalists, the atmosphere was also festive, between bottles of champagne, small party hats and this sign: “Finally. »
“It’s the death of a character that we hate, because he was misogynist, racist, Holocaust denier, anti-Semitic and all that. We must celebrate when such hateful characters die,” Louise Delporte, a 20-year-old political science student, told AFP.
“It’s a dying symbol and it’s really good to know that. A symbol of an extreme right which no longer has any meaning today. Unfortunately, she still exists and we must remember that she must not be alive,” rejoiced Vivien Perez, a young 24-year-old musician.
Figure of the French extreme right and finalist in the 2002 presidential election, Jean-Marie Le Pen died Tuesday at the age of 96 in the Paris region, in an establishment where he had been admitted several weeks ago.
Massive demonstrations were organized across France in the spring of 2002 against his qualification for the second round of the presidential election, which Jacques Chirac ultimately won.
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