Posted25 avril 2022, 01:36
From Rennes to Paris, demonstrators gathered once morest the re-election of Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, with occasional incidents.
Emmanuel Macron was re-elected President of the Republic on Sunday with around 58% of the vote once morest Marine Le Pen.
AFP
Several hundred demonstrators, mainly young “anti-fascists” and “anti-capitalists”, protested Sunday evening once morest the re-election of Emmanuel Macron in a few cities in France, marked by incidents in Rennes as well as in Paris, noted journalists from the AFP.
Shortly following the announcement of the victory of the outgoing president over Marine Le Pen, they were several hundred – 250 according to the prefecture – to gather in the center of Rennes, despite a large deployment of the police.
They unfurled a banner proclaiming “What we won’t get from the ballot box, we will get it from the streets” before leaving in procession to cries of “Macron is making war on us and his police too” or “Down the state, the cops and the fachos”.
“Finding a Counterbalance”
Demonstrators set fire to several garbage cans, forcing firefighters to intervene three times, according to the prefecture which had banned the demonstration. The security forces fired tear gas near the canal that crosses Rennes.
“We want to demonstrate to show that Le Pen we don’t want him at all but Macron we don’t want him either,” Nora, a 21-year-old student, told AFP. “We have to organize ourselves to find a counter-power”. Thomas Lefeuvre, a 19-year-old history student, still voted for Macron, “to block the far right”.
“This second round does not correspond to what we want for the future of young people,” he said. “People here tonight are legitimately angry and want to express it.” Seven demonstrators were arrested and one of them was taken into custody, according to a report from the prefecture at the end of the evening.
“Macron, get out!”
In the center of Paris, 250 to 300 “antifas” demonstrators demonstrated to cries in particular of “Macron get out”, clashing at times with the charging police. Leaving from Les Halles, they chanted “Marine Le Pen, it’s disgusting” and “Manu Macron, it’s disgusting”, or “Macron, get out!” to the Place de la République, surrounded by a large police force.
Simon, a 23-year-old Parisian, who did not wish to give his name, said he was “worried regarding the climate”: “we will not reach adulthood!” he launched in a colorful way. “Read the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). That’s why I’m here tonight.”
On the way, bicycles, scooters and garbage cans were overturned and a few projectiles were thrown at law enforcement trucks. The Republic statue has been tagged ‘The world is burning’. In the center of Nantes, a procession of around 400 to 500 people marched behind a banner proclaiming “Need for revolution”. Demonstrations also took place in Toulouse, Caen and Strasbourg.
(AFP)
