Paris (AFP)

The Minister Delegate for Citizenship Marlène Schiappa denounced Sunday the "responsibility" of "certain left parties" which, according to her, equates the government with the National Rally (RN), the day after the demonstrations organized throughout France against the far right.

Faced with the rise in voting intentions granted to the RN in the polls, "there is a responsibility of certain left-wing parties, which explain to you that everything is of the extreme right," said Ms. Schiappa.

"When we tell you: + Macron and Le Pen, it's worth +. When we are told: + in the second round I will not vote, because I'm on the left, I want to keep my hands clean. + irresponsible, "attacked the minister.

She criticized in particular the motivations of the organizers of the demonstrations on Saturday - who called to "say no to the extreme right, to its ideas which are spreading to the government and to defend freedoms" - which gathered according to the authorities more than 37,000 people in a hundred parades all over France.

“Yesterday the slogan was: + we are against the extreme right and everything that looks like the extreme right,” Ms. Schiappa recalled.

"And when we tell them: + yes we too (we are against), then what is it exactly? + So there we have a list in which the government finds itself."

"When everything is far right, nothing is far right," she said.

"When we make people believe that the government's policy is a policy close to the ideas of the National Rally, it is irresponsible."

According to Ms. Schiappa, "this is how we push good people into the arms of the National Rally. By telling them: + if you want to fight against terrorism, fight against Islamism, support the police , that would mean that you were on the extreme right. + "

In view of the regional elections, the minister, head of the majority list in Paris, said she was "ready to do anything so that the RN does not win".

However, she refused to call for a withdrawal from the LREM list in Hauts-de-France, in the event that LR and the RN would be neck and neck on the evening of the first round.

“We'll see between the two rounds,” she said.

© 2021 AFP