A large cross-party march against anti-Semitism is organized this Sunday in Paris, beginning at 3pm, at the initiative of the presidents of both chambers of Parliament. Gatherings are also scheduled to take place in many French cities. Since the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7th, more than a thousand cases of threats and violence against the Jewish community have been reported in France. Follow our live coverage.
A large cross-party march against anti-Semitism is organized this Sunday in Paris, at the initiative of the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher. Since the attacks by Hamas against Israel last October 7th, threats and violence against the Jewish community have multiplied in the country. More than a thousand anti-Semitic acts have been reported.
In Paris, the large civic march against anti-Semitism began around 3pm, with the procession starting at Place des Invalides behind the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher.
Walking behind the banner “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism,” were also Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, former Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, while thousands of people gathered to participate in this demonstration.
France Insoumise has chosen not to participate in this march, while the National Rally (Rassemblement National) is present at the end of the procession to avoid new controversies. Emmanuel Macron is not participating in this march.
More than 3,000 police officers and gendarmes are deployed in Paris to ensure security.
Many other gatherings are organized throughout France. Follow our live coverage.
In Paris, tens of thousands of people have responded to the call of the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, and the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, for the “great civic march” against anti-Semitism, according to journalists from AFP present at the scene. A good portion of the political class, including the far-right, attended.
In the lead of the procession, behind a banner “For the Republic, against anti-Semitism,” marched the two presidents of the two chambers of Parliament, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, former presidents of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, as well as several former heads of government, like Manuel Valls or Jean Castex.
The head of the procession started around 3:10 pm from the parvis of the National Assembly, and several “Marseillaise” were sung.
The leader of France Insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon described the march against anti-Semitism as a failure. According to AFP journalists at the demonstration, several tens of thousands of people marched on Sunday between the National Assembly and the Senate to reject anti-Semitism.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, said, “We are exactly where we should be.” ahead of the beginning of the large march against anti-Semitism at the Esplanade des Invalides.
The march against anti-Semitism is to be an opportunity for a “republican resurgence,” said the President of the Senate, Gérard Larcher, alongside his counterpart in the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, who hoped “that this march brings together as many of our fellow citizens as possible.”
A demonstration against anti-Semitism organized by La France Insoumise (LFI) near the site of the former Vel d’Hiv, was disrupted on Sunday morning in Paris by protesters who reproach Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party for its ambiguities on this issue.
Waving signs “Don’t touch the memory,” “Don’t touch the Vel d’Hiv,” several dozen protesters disrupted the gathering, which aimed to lay wreaths of flowers at the Square of the Martyrs of the Vélodrome d’Hiver, in the 15th arrondissement.
LFI intended to demonstrate against anti-Semitism without participating in the large civic march.
Elisabeth Borne criticized the “postures” of LFI and the National Rally, stating that “postures have no place” in the march against anti-Semitism this afternoon in Paris, in which she will participate because “this fight is vital for our national cohesion.”
The RN will participate in this large march organized at the call of the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher, which has angered left-wing parties and the majority given the anti-Semitic past of the party co-founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen.
LFI decided to boycott this demonstration precisely in response to the presence of the National Rally. But the messaging of the radical left party on anti-Semitism is muddled by several ambiguous positions taken by its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
One of his deputies, David Guiraud, triggered a political storm Saturday by seemingly downplaying the massacres carried out on October 7th by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel.
