Tensions are rising in France, where an Islamist struck again on Saturday. Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the country’s first big anti-racism demonstration.
PARIS “We are young and proud and we oppose borders,” chanted protesters in their twenties on Montparnasse in Paris on Sunday.
He participated in a demonstration called by a total of 400 organizations and civic movements to oppose racism. December 3rd is also a day of celebration because the first major anti-racism demonstration was seen in France exactly 40 years ago. The event is also known as the Arab March.
The wave of demonstrations started in Marseille in 1983, initially very small, gatherings of only a few tens of people. However, the group of participants grew city by city, and finally more than a month later, when the 1500 original marchers arrived, a hundred thousand marchers joined the Paris line.
Now the number of participants was clearly lower on a cold Sunday evening.
“No to Darmanin’s Law”
The protestors were opposed above all by the Minister of the Interior by Gerald Darmanin under the Act named by the French Parliament accepted on Saturday morning.
Immigrants’ language proficiency requirements are becoming stricter and family reunification is becoming more difficult. The deportation of citizens of two countries convicted of serious crimes will be made easier.
On the other hand, undocumented people who have a profession in fields suffering from labor shortages can legalize their status more easily than before.
The ultra-right activates
There was another terrorist attack in Paris just on Saturday evening, when an Islamist suffering from mental health problems killed a tourist and wounded two near the Eiffel Tower. In November, a teacher died as a victim of terrorism.
Along with anti-racism demonstrations, protests against foreigners and immigration have become more common in recent weeks.
In recent days, the authorities have arrested almost 20 people who took part in ultra-right marches. Interior Minister Darmanin has said that he intends to prohibit three far-right and neo-Nazi groups.
In November, a teenage boy “Thomas” was stabbed to death in a school fight in a small village near Grenoble. The extreme nationalists have organized several demonstrations in memory of Thomas and against immigration.
The representatives of the movement called Nativit have, among other things, made public the names of those involved in the school fight, and demand their deportation from France.
Tensions between different groups of citizens are now at their peak in France. Anti-Semitic acts are clearly more reported than before the Gaza war.
The threat of both Islamist and far-right terror has increased, and the security situation in France is extremely serious, according to many decision-makers interviewed in the media. The risk of a terrorist threat defined by the authorities is the highest possible.