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PROTESTS

IN PICTURES: Hundreds of thousands protest against far right in France

Around 640,000 people took to the streets in France on Saturday to protest against the far right, French trade union CGT said.

Published: 15 June 2024 18:21 CEST
A protester holds a placard which reads
A protester holds a placard which reads "Angry youth, on June 30, we vote for the Nouveau Front Populaire" during a demonstration against the far right, in Dijon, central eastern France, on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)

The CGT said there were 182 demonstrations across the country.

The demonstrations were called by trade unions, associations and the newly formed left-wing alliance the Nouveau Front Populaire less than a week after French President Emmanuel Macron called snap legislative elections after the far right made significant gains in European Parliament elections.

Protesters gather during an anti far-right rally  in Paris on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Sameer Al-Doumy / AFP)

The CGT said 250,000 people protested in Paris, while the police put the number in the capital at 75,000.

 
Demonstrators hold placards, union flags and banners at an anti far-right rally in Dijon, south-eastern France on June 15, 2024. One protester holds a banner reading “Rather the Front Populaire than the children of [Vichy leader] Petain”. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)
 
 
 

 
Demonstrators march with placards during an anti far-right rally in Nantes on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP)

And in Rennes, 25,000 demonstrators (according to the organisers, or 12,000 according to the police), joined the Pride March, where rainbow flags mixed with Palestinian flags.

“Democracy can be lost at any moment,” said Florence Audebert, 40, who used to work in the entertainment industry.

“I have often voted usefully, Chirac in 2002 against Jean-Marie Le Pen, then Macron against Marine Le Pen… So I am happy to have left-wing candidates to vote for in these legislative elections!” she added.

 
Demonstrators react as they are enveloped by tear gas during an anti far-right rally in Rennes, western France on June 15, 2024. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP)
 
The first tensions broke out shortly before 4pm at Rennes’ Place de Bretagne with police firing tear gas, according to an AFP journalist.
 
The police said that a few people were responsible for damage to banks, estate agencies, street furniture and throwing projectiles at the police, along the protest route. 
 

 
A demonstrator throws back a tear gas canister fired by police during an anti far-right rally in Nantes on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP)
 
In Nantes, the procession brought together 15,000 people according to the organisers, 8,500 according to the police, including many young people.
 

“The RN is like your ex: he says he’s changed but it’s not true”, a sign from a group of environmental law students read.  

Among them, Léonie Leblanc, 19, voted for the first time last week. “For a first election, such a result saddens me a lot. It will be tense but I believe in the Nouveau Front Populaire,” she said.

 
A protester wearing an astronaut costume holds a placard reading “I come from the future and we have won” during an anti far-right rally in Nantes on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP)
 
In the Nantes procession, a same-sex family, Chloé Mahouet-Pujol alongside his wife Natacha and their two and a half year old daughter in a stroller, is worried: “we are trying to have a second child and we are wondering what will happen to the rights of homosexual and LGBTQI+ people.”
 

 
Protesters chant and hold placards during a demonstration against the far right, in Toulouse on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)
 
Around 4.30pm, the Nantes procession split in two, with some of the demonstrators returning to the starting point in a good-natured atmosphere to the sound of a fanfare, while a hundred metres away groups of young people faced the police in a haze of tear gas, said an AFP correspondent, before calm returned.
 

The Loire-Atlantique police recorded five arrests and “no major damage”.

 

 
A protester holds a placard which reads “Rise up and vote Front Populaire” during a demonstration against the far right, in Dijon, central eastern France, on June 15, 2024. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)
 
Further demos are planned for Sunday, according to the trade unions, including in Lyon.
 
 

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POLITICS

How France’s far-right is winning the TikTok battle

If social media statistics were a solid predictor of voting intentions, France's far-right leader Jordan Bardella would be a shoo-in for prime minister.

Published: 21 June 2024 15:56 CEST
How France's far-right is winning the TikTok battle

The 28-year-old, leading the push for the anti-immigration National Rally (RN), is trouncing current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal — at least on TikTok.

The RN was a big winner in this month’s European elections, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to dissolve parliament and call a snap election for June 30th and July 7th.

Pollsters expect the RN to do well, but the big question is whether they will get an overall majority and control of the legislature in the European Union’s second-biggest economy.

Bardella has said he will not take the role of prime minister unless the party wins an outright majority.

On TikTok, the election is being played out in sometimes spicy vignettes.

Attal, heading the campaign for Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and just seven years older than Bardella, has called out his rival directly.

“If you don’t need anything, call Jordan Bardella,” Attal said in a clip filmed during pre-election campaigning, accusing Bardella’s camp of “absolute amateurism”.

Bardella, often filming pieces to camera from the comfort of his car, calmly warned against the dangers of misinformation in a close-up video on Thursday.

He repeatedly claims his party is being misrepresented by mainstream media.

But whether any of this will sway the election is up in the air.

‘Codes of authenticity’

Experts say it can be a fool’s errand to try to link social media popularity to votes.

“It is very difficult to measure the effect of social networks on electoral results,” said Marie Neihouser, a specialist in digital media and politics at Toulouse University.

Yet there is broad agreement that Bardella is succeeding where many politicians struggle.

“He is the only one who has incorporated the codes of authenticity into his video content,” Tristan Boursier, a researcher at Paris’s Sciences Po university, told AFP.

Alongside more traditional campaign videos, Bardella often appears in candid scenes, drinking pastis, eating Haribo sweets ahead of TV debates or preparing for an awkward meeting.

When appearing on television, he said in one clip, “I always eat sweets or sugar. It stops me feeling hungry, and then I’m galvanised for two hours.”

The approach “makes him likeable, human and presents him as authentic,” said Boursier.

His team posts more frequently than those of his rivals, and with far better numbers.

Bardella’s warning about misinformation had garnered more than one million views by Friday midday, compared with 300,000 for Attal’s chiding of Bardella.

Overall, Bardella has 1.7 million followers — having added some 500,000 since early June.

Attal has just over 300,000. Macron has 4.5 million but has not posted during the election campaign.

‘He’s funny’

The focus on TikTok helps shift the dynamic away from policies and on to personalities, helpful for Bardella who is one of France’s most popular politicians, according to opinion polls.

He has not revolutionised RN’s platform — their campaigning still drills the usual far-right mantra of immigration, national identity and law and order.

The party is also sceptical of climate science and conservative on issues like gay rights.

Despite polling in many countries suggesting young people are liberal on these issues, one quarter of French voters aged 18-24 backed the RN in the European election.

“He’s funny, he has the same references as me,” said Maya, an 18-year-old RN voter from near Paris who declined to give her surname.

Maya, who has followed the campaigns on social media, said RN founder Jean-Marie Le Pen was a “scumbag” but insisted Bardella was different — at least in his presentation.

“I know the RN isn’t very open about LGBT rights but laws protecting them are already in place, so nothing will change,” she said.

Marie Neihouser suggested the RN is looking well beyond this election with its TikTok strategy.

“Today’s teenagers will be tomorrow’s voters and reaching out to them now with his posts anchors his image in their minds,” she said.

“In five or 10 years, it will be more natural for them to slip a Bardella ballot into the ballot box.”

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