French elections: Thousands gather in Paris to protest far-right surge

euronews (in English)

Unions, independent media, citizen organisations organised a rally in Paris on Wednesday night to support the left-wing bloc and denounce the rise of the far-right in the upcoming second round of parliamentary elections.

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00:00Thousands gathered on Wednesday in Paris to protest the results of the first round of

00:11the French legislative elections after the far-right National Rally Party secured the

00:16most votes.

00:17Multiple unions, independent media and citizens' organizations were behind the demonstration

00:23calling on voters to block the rise of the far-right for the second round of the election

00:28scheduled for Sunday.

00:30Many present fear a far-right victory could curtail civil liberties due to the National

00:36Rally's history of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.

00:38If you ask me about the far-right, I don't know what will happen to all my comrades who

00:44are foreign students.

00:45I don't know what will happen to all the French bi-nationals who will still be stigmatized

00:51under the pretext that they are bi-nationals.

00:52We don't know what will happen to LGBT people, to racialized people, to women too, because

00:57the far-right is still the enemy of all these people.

01:03There is a chance that if voters mobilize massively, they could block the National Rally

01:08from winning the absolute majority in Parliament next Sunday.

01:12But voter fatigue is a major hurdle.

01:15I understand that they are fed up with it, because we are all tired of doing the little

01:19beavers nicely at every poll, but this one is not like the others, because the far-right

01:25is at the door of power and has the capacity to have the absolute majority.

01:28However, not everyone present at the demonstration agreed with the general message.

01:32I think that this is a rally that does not reflect at all the state of mind of the French.

01:37It's just a few people who got together.

01:40But deep France, which is in the countryside, which is in the province, thinks completely

01:47differently.

01:48It is much more numerous than what is happening here.

01:51More than 49 million registered voters will be heading to polling stations on Sunday in

01:56what could be a decisive election in French history.

02:00Sofia Katzenkova, reporting from Paris for Euronews.

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