Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in France this Saturday in more than 200 demonstrations across the country in response to the far right's victory in the European elections. In a massive appeal, the French left responded this way once formed into a coalition under the name Volksfrontto the possibility that the far right will win the early parliamentary elections and thus gain control of the government.
According to French law enforcement authorities, up to 250,000 protesters have taken to the streets across the country, including 75,000 in Paris. For its part, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of the organizing unions, has indicated that the number of participants in Paris is 250,000 and in France as a whole 640,000.
Outside the capital, one of the largest marches took place in Marseille, where police estimated there were 12,000 people. Police reported the arrest of four demonstrators during the demonstration route in the French capital before 6 p.m.
“We must avoid this catastrophe organized by Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen,” stressed Sophie Binet, general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), one of five unions that called for more than 200 demonstrations this weekend. whole country.
Binet, who was part of the leading procession of the Paris march, which left the Place de la République towards the Place de la Nation at around 2:30 p.m., has shown his hope because “we have observed a strong momentum since Monday. of the union”, referring to the Popular Front formed by La Francia Insumisa (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), the Ecologists and the Communist Party (PCF).
Key political leaders backed them, including PS first secretary Olivier Faure, who has stuck to the message of maintaining unity 'until victory' in the elections to be held in two rounds on December 30. and July 7.
An impulse between the Popular Front and the RN
Faure has repeated the argument that “there is only one force that can face the National Rally (RN, Marine Le Pen's party), and that force is the Popular Front”, because the polls – he emphasized – precede the 'collapse' of the party. Macronist bloc.
Macron decided last Sunday to call early parliamentary elections as soon as the results of the European elections were announced. His party, Renaissance, received only 14.6% of the vote and suffered a humiliating defeat to the RN, which received 31.4% of the vote.
The subsequent polls herald a new victory – with more than 30% of the vote – for Le Pen's party, which aims to take over the government and wants the Prime Minister to become its president, Jordan Bardella, while is in second place. The Front National would go for between 25 and 28%. Renacimiento would be relegated to third place with less than 20%.
Awaiting final figures to be released at the end of the day, police said they had counted 50,000 people in the rest of France before the parade in Paris at 1pm local time (11pm GMT).
The information services of law enforcement agencies, which had deployed 21,000 officers across France to ensure security, had estimated that there could be as many as 350,000 demonstrators across the country.
Frictions in rebellious France
This day to try to mobilize the electorate comes when the first frictions have arisen within the newly created Popular Front, when it became known that LFI has excluded from the inauguration five of its outgoing deputies who were involved because of their clashes with the leader of this side. from the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
At the same time, this formation has reinstated deputy Adrien Quatennens, one of Mélenchon's lieutenants, who was sentenced in 2022 to four months in prison, exempt from serving time, for beating his wife. All this has led to criticism from some members of LFI, but also from other officials of the left-wing coalition.
At the same time, the coup of the day was the announcement by former Socialist President François Hollande (he served at the Elysée from 2012 to 2017) that he will stand as a candidate on behalf of his party in the elections for a deputy. seat in the department of Corrèze (center), which was his electoral fief.
Hollande, who had expressed his support for the creation of the Popular Front on Thursday, indicated this afternoon from Corrèze that he is doing so because he believes that “the situation is serious” because “the far right has never been so close” to the arrive at a solution. power since the end of World War II.