After the right-wing National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) defeated President Macron’s Renaissance party with 31.5% of the vote in the European Parliament elections, hundreds of far-left supporting people staged a protest in Paris on Monday.
The protestors gathered outside the French Parliament and raised slogans against the victorious right-wing party National Rally. The demonstrators also raised pro-Palestine slogans during the protest.
Thousands of leftists gathered in Rennes, Nantes, and Rouen to push for a far-left ‘Popular Front’ to fight against the conservative National Rally in the parliamentary elections set to be held later this month. In Rennes, over 2,500 people protested against the right wing’s rise and chanted pro “popular front” [Front Populaire] slogans calling for the far-left to unite against the right wing. The protestors largely included left-wing parties, ecologists and trade unions.
In Nantes, more than 1,000 people rallied on Monday screaming slogans like “La jeunesse emmerde le RN” (“Youth f*cks with the RN”) and “Votre haine, notre révolte” (“Your hatred, our revolt”). The leftist protestors began a march in the city in the evening with a banner reading “revolution or barbarism”.
Meanwhile, in Rouen, over 800 people rallied against the right-wing party. The slogans chanted were “Young people f*ck the Front National” and “Everyone hates the Front National.” In Bordeaux and some other places, the protest took a violent turn and the police had to control the situation.
On Monday, French students gathered at Paris’ Henri IV High School to protest the right-wing party’s triumph in the European Parliament. Protesters blocked the building’s entrance, brandishing banners and chanting slogans against the conservative party and President Macron.
The left-wing protesting against the rise of right-wing in France indicates that as is the common trait in leftists across the world, it is a democracy only when the Left wins and it dies when their opponents emerge victorious.
Macron dissolves Parliament, announces snap elections
This came after President Emmanuel Macron dissolved France’s lower chamber of parliament, sending voters back to the elections in the coming days to elect MPs following his party’s humiliating defeat by the right-wing party in the European Parliament elections on the 9th of June. The declaration came as the provisional results from France showed the far-right National Rally party far ahead in the European Union’s parliamentary elections, giving Macron’s pro-European centrists an embarrassing disappointment.
While the Rassemblement National (National Rally) received 31.37% votes, Marcon’s Renaissance Party and its coalition Besoin d’Europe got just 14.60% votes.