Paris (AFP)

"Never again!": 2,000 people according to the organizers, 1,200 according to the police headquarters, gathered Saturday in Paris to demand immediate action against feminicides, at the call of a group of families and relatives of victims.

Among them - women, but also men - 74 wore wreaths of flowers. 74, that is the number of murders of women by their partner or former identified by a collective since January 1st.

"Feminicides = weapon of machismo destruction," could be read on a sign.

In the audience, Place de la République, featured singer Yael Naim and actresses Julie Gayet, companion of former President François Hollande, and Muriel Robin.

The latter called on the demonstrators to symbolically observe "74 seconds of noise and anger" and vigorously called on President Emmanuel Macron. "You talked about a national cause: where are you, how much does a woman's life cost?"

"I want an answer," hammered the actress, who played on the screen Jacqueline Sauvage, sentenced - before being pardoned by François Hollande - for the murder of her violent husband.

"Why do you stay silent?" Feminicides are not inevitable, we have no time, we are waiting for answers now, "said feminist activist Caroline De Haas to the head of state.

Questioned by AFP, MP MoDem Maud Petit also wished Emmanuel Macron to speak: "It is important for all these people to hear the president, a man, on this subject".

In a tweet, the Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Marlene Schiappa, said "warmly greet" the event.

"Violent spouses have been ruining the lives of women and children for too long," she said, reaffirming the "government's determination" to prevent feminicide.

Last meeting the slogan "Protect them", the collective at the origin of the meeting had signed a platform in Le Parisien last Sunday, calling Emmanuel Macron to "put an end to this massacre" and demanding the convening of a " Grenelle violence against women "with the police, justice, school, social services, businesses, associations.

He wants the systematic handling of complaints, the granting of legal aid as soon as a complaint is lodged, emergency shelter and protection orders for victims. But also electronic bracelets for violent spouses, a device that the Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet announced wanting to "generalize".

In recent days, politicians and civil society have stepped up to support these demands for concrete action.

Socialist Senator Laurence Rossignol, a former minister of women's rights, wrote to the justice and home affairs ministers asking for an administrative inquiry into the feminicides that occurred since 1 January. The High Council for Equality (HCE, independent consultative body) has "volunteered" to "identify the paths and possible failures that led to the murder" of these women.

If we take into account official and non-official couples (from husband to episodic relationship), 130 women died in 2017 in France, killed by their spouse or ex, against 123 in 2016, according to the latest Victims' Delegation data from the Ministry of the Interior. The number of femicides ranged from 122 (in 2015) to 157 (2010) in recent years.

At the end of the rally on the Place de la République, on Saturday in the early evening, some forty people went to bed, shouting "Never again!"

? 2019 AFP