A major transpartisan march against anti-Semitism is being organized this Sunday in Paris, at the initiative of the presidents of the two houses of Parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher. Since the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, threats and violence against the Jewish community have increased in the country. More than a thousand anti-Semitic acts have been recorded.
In Paris, the great civic march against anti-Semitism began around 3 p.m., the procession setting off from Place des Invalides behind the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher.
Behind the banner “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism”, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande also walked, while thousands of people gathered to participate in this demonstration.
La France Insoumise has chosen not to participate in this march, while the National Rally is present at the end of the procession, to avoid further controversies. Emmanuel Macron is not participating in this march.
More than 3,000 police officers and gendarmes are deployed in Paris to ensure security. Many other gatherings are organized throughout France. Follow our live stream.
Information to remember:
- 182,000 marched throughout France, 105,000 in Paris alone
- 7,500 people marched in the streets of Marseille
- A major transpartisan march against anti-Semitism is being organized this Sunday in Paris, at the initiative of the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate.
- The procession set off around 3 p.m. from Les Invalides.
- Gatherings are also organized in several large cities throughout France.
- The RN will participate, unlike LFI which decided to boycott this march.
- Sunday morning, Elisabeth Borne denounced the “postures” of LFI and the RN.
- A gathering of LFI deputies at the square of Jewish Martyrs at the Vélodrome d’Hiver, in the 15th arrondissement, was disrupted by demonstrators.
More than 182,000 demonstrators in France against anti-Semitism
More than 182,000 people marched on Sunday afternoon against anti-Semitism in France, including 105,000 in Paris, we learned from the Ministry of the Interior and the police headquarters.
At 5:30 p.m., 110 mobilizations (excluding Paris) had mobilized 77,560 people, said the ministry, noting that the most important actions had been organized in Marseille (7,500 people), Strasbourg (5,000), Grenoble (3,700), Bordeaux (3,500) , Nice (3,000), Lyon (3,000), Nantes (2,000) and La Rochelle (2,000). In the capital, 105,000 people marched, according to the police headquarters. “No notable incident” is to be deplored, said Place Beauvau.
105,000 people marched in Paris
105,000 people responded to the call from the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, for the “great civic march” against anti-Semitism, according to AFP journalists present on site. A good part of the political class, including the far right, made the trip.
At the head of the procession, behind a banner “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism”, march the two presidents of the two houses of Parliament, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, the former presidents of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, as well as several former heads of government, such as Manuel Valls or Jean Castex.
The head of the procession set off around 3:10 p.m. from the square in front of the National Assembly, and several “Marseillaise” were sung.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon believes that the march against anti-Semitism was a failure
The leader of La France insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon estimated regarding the march against anti-Semitism that “the entire right and the extreme right, although united, have failed to reproduce the general mobilizations of the past”.
According to AFP journalists at the demonstration, several tens of thousands of people marched on Sunday between the National Assembly and the Senate to reject anti-Semitism, while the number of hostile acts against Jews has exploded since October 7 , start of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas.
“The rejection of anti-Semitism is broader in France. They have stunted it and made it ambiguous. The French people will remain united despite their leaders,” added Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the X platform. LFI had decided to boycott this march to mark his dissatisfaction with the participation of the National Rally (RN) and the other far-right party, Reconquest.
The other left-wing parties Europe Écologie-Les Verts, PS and PCF as well as associations for the defense of human rights have chosen to participate, but to display themselves behind a common banner “against anti-Semitism and all the instigators of hatred and of racism” in a “republican cordon” approach against the far right.
“We are exactly where we need to be,” says Marine Le Pen
“We are exactly where we need to be,” launched the leader of the National Rally deputies Marine Le Pen a few minutes before the start of the big march against anti-Semitism on the Esplanade des Invalides.
Marine Le Pen, whose presence in this procession is contested by the left and the majority due to the anti-Semitic past of her party, considered that it was “petty political politics”. A group of activists from a left-wing Jewish organization Golen briefly tried to object to his participation at the start of the demonstration, before being restrained by police.
“Our agenda is the Republic,” says Gérard Larcher
The march against anti-Semitism must be the occasion for a “republican surge”, declared Sunday the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, alongside his counterpart in the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet who hoped “that this This march brings together our fellow citizens as much as possible.
“Our agenda is the Republic,” summarized Gérard Larcher shortly before the departure of the Parisian procession scheduled for 3:00 p.m., which the controversies over the presence of the National Rally and the absence of La France Insoumise “must not sully “, estimated Yaël Braun-Pivet.
An LFI rally against anti-Semitism disrupted by demonstrators
A rally against anti-Semitism organized by La France insoumise (LFI) near the location of the former Vel d’Hiv, was disrupted Sunday morning in Paris by demonstrators who criticize Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party for its ambiguities on that question.
Carrying signs “Don’t touch the memory”, “Don’t touch the Vel d’Hiv”, several dozen demonstrators disrupted the gathering which aimed to lay wreaths of flowers at the square of the Jewish Martyrs of the Vélodrome d’Hiver, in the 15th arrondissement.
A larger gathering planned by LFI had been banned by the Paris Police Prefecture, but the laying of flowers had been authorized. LFI thus intended to demonstrate against anti-Semitism without participating in the great civic march.
Elisabeth Borne denounces the “postures” of LFI and the RN
Elisabeth Borne estimated on Sunday that “postures have no place” in the march against anti-Semitism this afternoon in Paris, in which she will participate because “this fight is vital for our national cohesion”. This remark targets both La France Insoumise (LFI) whose “absence speaks for itself” and the National Rally (RN) whose “presence fools no one”, specified the Prime Minister in a message on (ex-Twitter).
The RN will participate in this major march organized at the call of the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher, which aroused the anger of left-wing groups and the majority given the anti-Semitic past of the party co-founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.
LFI decided to boycott this demonstration precisely in response to the presence of the RN. But the message of the radical left party on anti-Semitism is confused by several positions considered ambiguous by its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. One of its deputies David Guiraud sparked a political storm on Saturday by appearing to minimize the massacres committed on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel.