Thousands of students rallied across France Thursday to protest against the anti-immigration National Front party, whose historic success in EU polls they said threatened democracy.
Waving banners that read “No to the National Front”, and “Wake up, France,” demonstrators rallied in Lyon, in the east of the country, as well as in Paris, Toulouse, Rouen, Amiens, Nantes, Marseille and Bordeaux.
“We respect the result of the European elections, of democracy, but we do not accept the values of the National Front (FN),” Silvio Philippe, one of the organisers of the Lyon rally, told AFP. “French democracy is in danger.”
The FN won a nationwide election for the first time on Sunday, topping mainstream political parties to clinch 24 of France’s 74 seats in the new European parliament.
The result, which was echoed by similar gains for far-right parties in other countries such as the United Kingdom, sent shock waves through the political establishment.
The party led by Marine Le Pen wants France to quit the euro, reinstate national border controls and repatriate the bulk of Brussels’ powers to national parliaments.
After the vote, Le Pen said that voters had demanded “only one type of politics – a politics of the French, for the French and with the French,” comments that sparked concern among the country’s large immigrant population.
more: france24
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