To the tune of Bella Ciao, the demonstrators demanded a “clear” stance from Macron against the National Union. “We don’t want torches” and “they shall not pass” were some of the chants uttered.
Thousands of supporters of the left-wing coalition demonstrated in Paris on Monday against the far right, with several allusions to the 1940s, asking the French president to clarify his position and calling unambiguously for a “republican front”.
The demonstration took place at the Place de la République in central Paris and was called for by the New Popular Front (Nouvelle Union Populaire in French), with interventions by leaders of all parties, including the leader of France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and the national secretary of the French Socialist Party, Olivier Faure.
The National Union was the party that received the most votes in the first round of the French legislative elections held on Sunday, with around 34% of the votes, ahead of the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP, 28.5%) and the centrist Together for the Republic (22&), according to the first projections.
“In this country there is no escape from a fundamental choice. Now is the time: it’s us or them, there’s no in between”And we are not here just to build a dam, we are here because we want to change everything,” exclaimed Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the end of the demonstration, provoking long applause from the people listening to him.
Carrying the flags of the coalition, Palestine or the rainbow flag representing the LGBT movement, thousands of protesters sang songs such as “we don’t want torches”, “siamo tutti antifascisti”, “no pasarán” or the song Bella Ciao.
Le Pen says “democracy has spoken”, Attal says “the far right is on the verge of power”: reactions to the victory of the National Union
In Lusa, Raphaël, 23, said he was “very sad” about tonight’s results because, despite the polls, “what was a mere vertigo has become reality and the far right has never been so close to power since Pétain,” said the general who implemented the Vichy regime, which collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Refuting the idea that France “never experienced” the far right in power, several protesters carried signs or flags alluding to World War II to Praça da República, including 24-year-old Maxime, who held a French flag with the Cross of Lorraine in the middle.
“It is the symbol of resistance, under which communists and Gaullists united to free France from the Vichy regime, to fight against fascism and the Nazis, and today it seems to me that the National Union is the heir of Pétain. So we are in a historic situation and it seems to me that this symbol has every reason to exist today,” he said.
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Following this resistance in the 1940s, which brought together figures from the left and the centre-right, several figures this afternoon called on the parties that make up the presidential coalition to withdraw their candidacies if they came third, and to call on left-wing voters to defeat the far right.
“Today we hear many leaders of ‘macronism’ express themselves and everything is still very confusing“It remains very confusing for people who nevertheless benefited from your votes in 2017 and 2022, because it was you who prevented Le Pen from being elected in the presidential elections, because you made the effort to vote for them,” the secretary told the French PS national demonstrators.
Stressing that, until now, “everything is open in France”, Jeff, 67, told Lusa that the fact that there are 300 to 390 electoral circles where there will be three candidates to contest the election opens the possibility of “an anti-fascist reaction” throughout the country.
“The left has already asked its voters to give in to a republican party, against fascism, as soon as they are in third place. Whereas the right has not yet given any signal. So it is very ambiguous,” he said, in line with the national secretary of the Europe Ecology of the Greens (EELV) party, who considered that the elections are now in the hands of “the parties in government.”
“No centrist party leader should miss the call”They call themselves humanists, democrats, republicans: now we will see if they really are or not! Let them come and help us build a new republican front around our programme,” the environmental leader appealed.
The coordinator of France Insubmissa, Manuel Bompard, considered it “unacceptable” that an equivalence be established between National Union and his party and, on a night in which the extreme right obtained the best result in its history in the legislative elections, he left a message that summed up the mood of the protesters.
“Today our mood is not one of joy, but neither of sadness. Today the mood has to be combativeof battle, so that, in each electoral district, each house, company or public service, we seek out the voters and, within a week, inflict a defeat on the National Union,” he said.
Source: Observadora
