The unions and left-wing parties organized demonstrations this Saturday in France that, without being massive, were in some cases massive. against the extreme right whom the polls place at the gates of power.
Law enforcement estimated there were 250,000 protesters across the country, 75,000 of them in Paris, he explained to EFE a spokesperson for the Police Prefecture, who specified that until shortly before 6:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. GMT) four arrests had been recorded.
The altercations during the tour in the capital, between the Plaza de la República and the Plaza de la Naciónwith drizzles at times, were of small magnitude, highlighted the spokesperson for the Police Prefecture.
Outside the capital, one of the largest marches was that of Marseilleswhere police estimated there were 12,000 people.
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT)one of the organizing unions, indicated for its part that there were 250,000 in Paris and 640,000 throughout France.
Within the parades, the atmosphere was quite relaxed and at times festive, with singing. There were banners from the unions, from the parties of the new Popular Front, but often Palestinian flags could also be seen.
This day of mobilization is a consequence of the electoral advance of the legislative elections decided by French President Emmanuel Macron after the severe defeat suffered by his party, Renacimiento, last Sunday in the European Parliament elections, in which he had to settle for 14.6% of the votes, compared to 31.4% for the National Group (RN ) by Marine Le Pen.
In the face of those legislative elections, which will be held on June 30 and July 7, The polls that have been carried out since then predict a new victory for the RN, which would obtain more than 30% of the votes in the second round, while in second position would be the new Popular Front made up of left-wing parties.
The main leaders of these formations were present at the Paris march, such as the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, which highlighted the importance of the unity achieved in less than a week around “a positive project to change lives, like in 1936 with the Popular Front.”
These types of messages to unity were confronted with the first frictions in the new coalition when it became known that La Francia Insumisa (LFI) has excluded from the investiture five of its outgoing deputies who had been implicated for their clashes with the leader of this party of the radical left, Jean-Luc Melenchon.
At the same time, this formation has reinstated deputy Adrien Quatennens, one of Mélenchon’s lieutenants, who in 2022 was sentenced to four months in prison exempt from serving for hitting his wife, which has generated unrest within LFI, as well as in the rest of the games.
The coup d’état of the day came with the announcement of the former president of France between 2012 and 2017, the socialist François Hollande, that he is going to run in the elections on behalf of his party for a seat in the department of Corrèze (center), which was already his electoral fiefdom in the past.
Hollande, who had been very critical of the 2022 electoral alliance of the PS with LFI, the PCF and the Ecologists, on Thursday gave his support to the constitution of the Popular Front.
This afternoon, from Corrèze, he justified his candidacy for a deputy position by considering that “the situation is serious” given “the risk represented by the extreme right”, which can come to power, and insisted that this must be prevented from happening. .
(With information from AP and EFE)
