New rallies are planned for this Saturday, September 21, at the initiative of several student, feminist and environmentalist organizations to denounce a “denial of democracy” after the arrival at Matignon of Michel Barnier.
After a first day of mobilization on September 7, student, environmentalist and feminist associations and organizations are calling for new rallies this Saturday, September 21 against a “Macron-Barnier government”. A day that coincides with the probable announcement of a new government by Michel Barnier. The head of state has appointed to Matignon “a hard-right, anti-social, anti-migrant Prime Minister with a homophobic past who will only be able to govern with the permanent agreement of Marine Le Pen”, the president of the National Rally, explain the Student Union, the Union syndicale et lycéenne, the Family Planning and Attac France.
The call for mobilization was relayed by several dozen personalities in a column published in the‘Humanity on the eve of the rally day. “We can still prevent the worst, and make our demands come true for social, fiscal and climate justice, for a real plan to fight discrimination and violence against women, for a right to the future for our youth” write the signatories. Among the latter are several figures of the left, the politicians Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Tondelier, but also the comedian Guillaume Meurice, the rapper Médine and the historian Fanny Gallot.
This second day of demonstrations since the start of the school year is planned in Paris and throughout France to denounce “a denial of democracy”. More than 50 processions are organized across the country. The marches planned throughout France will be for salaries, pensions, living and study conditions, climate issues as well as the rights of women, LGBT+ people and migrants, the various organizations detailed in a press release on X. In Paris, the departure in the capital will be given at 2 p.m. from Place de la Bastille to follow the route in the east of the city towards Place de la Nation. In Marseille too, the meeting is set for 2 p.m. In Lyon, the demonstrators are expected at Place Bellecour from 2:30 p.m.
A new gathering in October
On Saturday, September 7, a first mobilization against this nomination brought together 26,000 people in the capital according to the Paris prefecture and 160,000 according to the organizers. In France, approximately 110,000 demonstrators participated in the movement, according to the Ministry of the Interior. After September 21, a new day of demonstration is already planned for October 1 at the initiative of the inter-union. This date marks the beginning of discussions on the State budget and that of Social Security in the National Assembly. In a press release dated September 12, the “union and youth organizations call for demonstrations and strikes so that finally the social emergencies, expressed in the mobilizations as in the ballot boxes, are heard.”
At the end of August, La France Insoumise had launched a call for a rally throughout the country, considering that the president was putting “democracy in serious danger by refusing the result of the ballot boxes and a New Popular Front government”. Like the Socialist Party, the CGT had not responded to the call of the Insoumis, preferring to postpone its return to school until later.