Tens of thousands of people are marching in France on Saturday against the far right, in a position of strength ahead of the legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron, while the new left-wing coalition is already experiencing the first cracks.
Between 300,000 to 350,000 demonstrators are expected in France for a “popular tidal wave” against a new victory of the National Rally (RN, far right) on June 30 and July 7, after its triumph on Sunday in the European elections which led the leader of the State to dissolve the National Assembly.
“I thought I was never going to see the far right come to power and now it can happen,” said Florence David, a 60-year-old trainer demonstrating in Paris where the procession set off around 2 p.m. (8 a.m. in Quebec).
“The RN really scares me,” Ariane Guinamand, a 22-year-old protester, also testifies in Clermont-Ferrand (center). In Reims (east), Mélodie, 20, feels “threatened” as a “woman and lesbian”.
Around 200 demonstrations are planned in total in the country during the weekend two weeks before the legislative elections which are causing a chaotic recomposition of political life in France.
“We are potentially in a tipping point for democracy,” said Marylise Léon, the head of the CFDT, one of the five unions which called for mobilization.
To block the far right, the main left-wing parties, from La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) to the Socialists and the Ecologists, managed to hastily ally themselves by putting aside their differences on Ukraine or the war in Gaza.
But their coalition called New Popular Front experienced its first tensions on Saturday after the LFI decision not to reinvest opponents of the party leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The sidelined elected officials denounced “a purge” and accused Mr. Mélenchon, former presidential candidate and divisive figure, of “settle his scores”.
Others deplored that Adrien Quatennens, close to this leader of the radical left, was reinvested even though he had been convicted in 2022 for domestic violence.
“Purge”
“Extremely shocked” by this “purge”, the boss of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier summoned the authorities of her party. The boss of the socialists Olivier Faure, for his part, judged the “eviction” of the LFI deputies “scandalous”.
Supportive of the union of the left, the former socialist president of the Republic François Hollande (2012-2017) also created a surprise by announcing his candidacy for the legislative elections in Corrèze (center). “The situation is serious,” he justified.
President Macron, who is participating this weekend in a G7 in Italy and a summit on Ukraine in Switzerland, described the differences on the left as “a spectacle of great incoherence”: “We are among the crazy, this is not is not serious.
The president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, who is aiming for the post of prime minister at 28, estimated that only “two political parties” will be able to “compose a government”: his own and this new union of the left.
His party is currently leading the way in opinion polls. An Opinionway poll published on Saturday credits him with 33% of voting intentions, ahead of the New Popular Front (25%) and the presidential majority (20%).
Lagging behind, the Republican right has been tearing itself apart since Republican President Eric Ciotti’s call to ally with the RN. On Friday, the Paris court caused yet another twist by invalidating his exclusion.
While the Euro football started Friday evening in Germany, the striker of the French team Marcus Thuram called for “fighting so that the RN does not pass”, a rare position for a top athlete level.
On Saturday and without referring specifically to France, the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni, whose country hosted the G7, said she hoped that Europe would take into account the “message” sent to the European elections, marked by a surge in ‘far right.
“European citizens are demanding pragmatism, a less ideological approach on various big issues,” said the far-right leader.