Nearly 22,000 demonstrators in France against the far right, far from being pro-Macron

“Better a vote that stinks than a vote that kills”. In Paris and in the region, nearly 22,000 demonstrators went on Saturday to say “no to the far right”, without supporting Emmanuel Macron eight days before the second round of the presidential election, which opposes the outgoing president to Marine Le Pen.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, 12,690 people mobilized in more than 50 demonstrations in the region and 9,200 in Paris.

“Not a voice for Marine Le Pen!” Hammered the organizers in front of several hundred demonstrators in Lille.

“We are here to say no to the far right. (…) for society, freedoms but also the climate. It would be a real regression if it came to power”, according to Jean-François Julliard, director general of Greenpeace France interviewed by AFP in Paris; where several thousand people paraded under the sun.

Also in Marseille, the city where Emmanuel Macron held a meeting this Saturday: Medina Bayoui, high school student, demonstrated “to block the far right”.

In the processions, many young people. In Paris, they chanted “The youth annoys the National Front (sic)”. In Lyon, among the 2,000 demonstrators, Emma, ​​23, a student, mobilized “against the trivialization of dangerous ideas, (…) the potential dictatorship”.

Marine Le Pen, who spoke to the press earlier in the morning in Saint-Rémy-sur-Avre (Eure-et-Loir), believes that “coming to demonstrate against the results of an election” is “deeply anti-democratic So I think the French find it unpleasant to see their choice being challenged in the street, through demonstrations.

“By rejecting Marine Le Pen, it is a question of preventing the advent of a social project that is destructive of the rule of law, of the social and united democratic republic that we defend every day”, according to the press release from the thirty organizations and unions, such as the LDH, SOS Racisme, the CGT, the Syndicate of the judiciary or the national union of journalists, at the origin of the call.

“It’s anything but a social project as it claims (…). We are here to say + there is fire, our social movement must react +”, recalls Benoit Teste, secretary general of the FSU.

– “Neither Le Pen nor Macron” –

In these processions bathed in sunshine, if the demonstrators are all against the far right, they do not spare the outgoing president, even dismissing the two contenders back to back.

In Paris, the co-president of Mrap François Sauterey summarizes: “we do not want Marine Le Pen at the Élysée. We are here to say + use your ballot to prevent him from coming to power +, we do not say + vote Macron +, but it comes down to that”.

Bruno, a 60-year-old teacher, came from Chambéry to Lyon to say “no to nationalism, populism, xenophobia”. He will vote Macron, “the danger is too great for democracy”.

Voting Macron means allowing “to choose who we oppose. (…) We will have the possibility of organizing a strong opposition”, according to Aneth Hambert, 25 and EELV activist in Lille.

Activist of SOS Racisme, Sasha Halgand, who regrets being faced with “a Macron / Le Pen duel which the youth does not want, (…) the useful vote goes to him. If Marine le Pen came to power, there would be fascist militias, draconian laws”.

Lucile Muller, 19, a student in Paris, “challenges the two candidates”: “we already had the same result five years ago but we did not know Macron. There, we saw police violence, draconian laws (.. .)”.

In Saint-Etienne, 200 people, including many young people, took part in a “Carnival against the electoral masquerade”, wearing Emmanuel Macron masks, and these slogans “Ni Macron ni Le Pen”, “No to the stock market” , “Suspicion everywhere, freedom nowhere”.

Finally in Marseille, an NPA banner proclaimed: “Against Le Pen and the far right, against Macron and his anti-social policy, let us count only on our struggles”.

In Rennes, incidents occurred between demonstrators of the ultra-left and the police during a prohibited rally while an authorized demonstration against racism and fascism took place without incident in another part of the city.

A few incidents also broke out in Paris at the end of the demonstration between the police and a hundred people. With the throwing of projectiles, a bicycle and burning waste on one side, the use of tear gas on the other.

And if in Paris a sign recalled: “2002 (Editor’s note: Jean-Marie Le Pen against Jacques Chirac in the second round) it was no, 2022 is still no”, recalls a sign in Paris. In Nice, a hundred people gathered, where in 2002, “we were 20,000 between the two towers”, remembers Jean-Pierre Lamort, 77 years old.

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