The call for the rally was launched when we learned that Montreuil would serve as the setting for the BFMTV show La France dans les yeux with Eric Zemmour as a guest. In the meantime, the studio which was to host the filming announced that it was canceling the performance, the values and commitments of the Boilermaking management team being “in total opposition to the words of the far-right polemicist“. The program was finally recorded in Aubervilliers, but the town hall of Montreuil maintained its appeal.
Some 300 people therefore gathered, this Wednesday at the end of the day, at the foot of the town hall illuminated in blue white red. The actress Ariane Ascaride, born in Marseille but Montreuilloise by adoption, was the first to speak on stage, drawing a parallel between the two cities: “Marseille was called the gateway to the Orient. This is what makes its richness, the Italians, North Africans, Greeks, Armenians, Spaniards, Africans have always been part of the landscape of my childhood. I have never been able to conceive of my life without these cultural encounters which have nourished my outlook on the world.“.
– Sarah Tuchscherer
Montreuil diverse city
Montreuil, a plural city, made up of multiple nationalities and where people live well, is what many demonstrators describe when asked about the reasons for their presence at this demonstration. Born here, like the polemicist, Jacques is moved to tears when he proclaims his love for his city : “Montreuil has nothing to do with this gentleman. I love this city, I don’t want it to be dirty. I don’t like the division he creates in people by saying that some are on the right side and some are not. If I had the chance to be born here, by what right would I oppose others coming?“
“He can come and express himself in Montreuilconcedes Désiré, it’s democracy, but he will face people who will come to show their dissatisfaction, in a peaceful way, like this evening“. President of a neighborhood association, he does not share the values carried by Eric Zemmour in this presidential campaign: “There is in this city a tradition of social and cultural solidarity, I do not think that these are things to which he is attached“.