300,000 demonstrators in France?
On X, the leader of the LFI deputies, Mathilde Panot claimed 160,000 demonstrators in Paris and 300,000 in France. Far from the accounts of the Police Prefecture which numbered 26,000 in the capital… In the region there were around 2,000 in Bordeaux, a thousand in Bayonne and several hundred in Pau, La Rochelle, Périgueux or Mont-de-Marsan.
The initiative, launched at the end of August by two unions of students and high school students then taken over by the LFI, is part of a wider protest strategy of the insoumias who submitted to the National Assembly a procedure to dismiss the president. of the Republic. But the Mélenchonist troops are struggling to gain support on the left: like the major union centers, the PS did not broadcast the call to demonstrate on Saturday.
“Long Term Battle”
“Democracy is not only the art of accepting to have won, it is also the humility to accept to lose,” launched Insoumis patriarch Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Emmanuel Macron, perched on a truck in the capital's procession. “I appeal to you for a long-term struggle,” he also told the crowd, enjoying the mobilization at the 150 marches claimed this Saturday in the country.
The election of Michel Barnier, from the right, strengthened the determination of the demonstrators. “We see that a pact has been made between Macron, the right and the far right,” criticized LFI deputy Aurélie Trouvé, as chants of “Macron's resignation” echoed through the crowd. If Mr Barnier indicated on Friday that he was ready to work with the left, “no one is being fooled”, added Ms Trouvé, who found his tough speech on immigration hard to appreciate, saying he was repeating “this thing that the far right has done -a”. always said “What Macron is offering us is not cohabitation, it's a challenge,” criticized environmentalist leader Marine Tondelier on BFMTV, vowing not to “resign” from the Lille rally.
“Come together around a project of action”
On his first trip to the field, at the Necker hospital in Paris, Michel Barnier disputed the words “force blow, which there is no reason to utter”. “We are not in this state of mind: the spirit is to unite around a government action project,” he added, arguing that the country's financial situation is “serious.”