French feminists march against the far right days before the vote

Paris:

Thousands of people turned out in France on Sunday for feminist demonstrations against the far right, which is expected to emerge victorious in snap elections on June 30, as parties tried to shore up support with just a few days to go.

With the far-right National Rally (RN) vote at around 35 percent, “we have to remind people that they were the ones who talked about ‘comfort abortions,’ who are always attacking family planning services,” Morgane said. Legras, a nuclear engineer and feminist activist participating in the march of thousands of people in Paris.

Protesters dressed in violet marched from the Place de la Republique square in central Paris to the Place de la Nation in the east, carrying signs with messages such as “Push back the far right, not our rights.”

Other rallies took place in around 50 other cities, such as Toulouse.

France’s two-round electoral system makes it difficult to predict which party will ultimately claim a majority in the lower house of parliament, handing them the post of prime minister, who is second in power behind President Emmanuel Macron.

Since Macron dissolved parliament following an electoral defeat for the European Parliament, his centrists are far behind the RN as well as a reformed left-wing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) in polls on voting intentions.

The RN gained unprecedented levels of support after a decades-long “de-demonization” effort to distance its image from its roots, including a co-founder who was a member of the Nazi paramilitary group Waffen-SS.

But the core of his message remains hostility to immigration, Islam and the European Union.

Senior RN lawmaker Sebastien Chenu gestured to Muslim and Jewish voters on Sunday, promising not to ban the ritual slaughter of cattle to produce halal or kosher meat.

“Everyone can continue to eat kosher meat if they want,” Chenu told Jewish broadcaster Radio J.

He added that a historic far-right policy of banning the kippa in public spaces – following in the footsteps of an existing law that bans the wearing of the full-body burqa by some Muslim women – was not high on the RN’s agenda, saying the his priority was to combat “the Islamic threat”.

‘Do it better’

On Macron’s side, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal acknowledged that the result of the European Parliament – where they obtained just 14 percent – was “a message to us that we have to do better with our methods, with our governance” of the country .

If his party defies the odds to come top in the legislative elections, he promised “change”, including a move to “seek coalitions with the French public, with civil society” in an interview with broadcaster RTL.

Macron’s alliance would be open to “all who want to come, from the conservative right to the social democratic left”, Macron’s former prime minister, Edouard Philippe, told France 3 broadcaster.

Attal also insisted on the centrists’ mantra about threats from the “extremes” of the left and right, saying they both promised a “fiscal mess… a crusher for the middle classes.”

Especially the RN “is not ready to govern… it is an opposition party, not a government party”, said Attal.

In a sign of concern abroad about Macron’s bid for the polls, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday that he was “concerned about the elections in France”, although “it is up to the French people to decide”.

‘Shut up’

The left-wing NFP alliance continued to show tensions on Sunday, after the parties hastily repaired ties severed over differing responses to Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 and the ongoing retaliation by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Divisions are particularly sharp over whether his candidate for prime minister should be Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Unbowed (LFI) – the group’s largest party, some of which have been accused of anti-Semitism.

Mélenchon should “shut up”, former socialist president François Hollande said on Sunday, as “people reject him more vehemently” than RN leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.

“Do we want the left to win or do we want to fuel the conflict?” he said.

Mélenchon said on Saturday that he intended to “govern the country”.

“I will never give up the honor of being the target” of attacks, Mélenchon said at a rally in the southern city of Montpellier on Sunday.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)