On the sidelines of the congress of the National Gathering which opened this weekend in Perpignan, between 650 and 3,000 people marched in the streets of the prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales against the extreme right.
Between 650 and 3,000 people demonstrated on Saturday against the extreme right in Perpignan, where the congress of the National Gathering had just opened, a year after the election for mayor of this city of Louis Aliot (RN).
Waving Catalan flags, CGT or NPA, the demonstrators, coming from several departments of the region, marched behind a banner proposing to fight "together against the extreme right", at the call of associations, unions or left parties.
"The far right comes out of the elections weakened but we must continue the fight"
"I refuse that the whole of France looks at us as if Perpignan were the center of the National Front. Perpignan is not the National Rally, it is an open, welcoming city", explains Claire Serrurier, a Perpignan national education official. 50 years old, surrounded by Catalan, CGT or NPA flags. A feeling shared by Philippe Deblauwe, also aged 50: "It annoys me to know that my city serves as a springboard for these ideas. We must therefore come and express our opposition and also come and think together on how to propose something else".
"We must not leave the ground to the National Rally. The far right comes out of the elections weakened but we must continue the fight," said Florent Marsal, 22, former PS candidate in the cantonal elections.
For Sonia Marzo, 70, "we are getting closer to what took shape in the 1930s, the same climate. The government is playing on the fear of the extreme right. Yet we have a violent state which puts everything in place. for them, ”she said.
It is necessary "that the youth mobilize to the maximum. Not only the youth, the whole of society, because once these ideas in power we will have only our eyes to cry", declares for his part the anti-fascist activist Raphaël Arnault, 26 years old.
The demonstration, supervised by a CGT security service and many police officers, took place in the streets to the west of the city, outside the usual route, opposite the neighborhood where is held, Saturday and Sunday, the RN congress.