Dramatic footage has shown riot police again clashing with Lefty protesters in Paris in the aftermath of the European Parliamentary elections in which far-right candidates in France made dramatic gains.
In one clip, shared on X by news agency CLPRESS, demonstrators are shown running as several tear gas canisters are fired into their midst, with clouds billowing around them.
A second, shared by journalist Remy Buisine, shows violent clashes between baton-wielding police and protesters.
At one point one activist is knocked to the ground, shortly after which another is dragged from a fast food restaurant.
In the city of Rennes in north-western France, several thousand protesters marched for the second time in two days.
Fabrice Le Restif, general secretary of the FO union in Ille-et-Vilaine, said: “Every time the public service is attacked, every time we are robbed of two years of our lives on the issue of pensions, every time the unemployed are attacked, the ideas of the far right obviously flourish.”
He added: “The far-right are our historic enemies. In the 1940s, they banned the trade unions, and today they still find themselves in this breeding ground of insecurity and misery, and that’s all they live on.
“They must not be allowed to prosper.”
The violence follows similar scenes on Monday night, with footage shot in the capital, as well as other locations including Strasbourg and Bordeaux underlining the scale of the upheaval.
Left-wing demonstrators are taking to the streets in anger after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally took 31.5 percent of the vote in the weekend’s elections – more than double the tally of Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party.
Mr Macron responded by calling a snap election next month, in what is widely regarded as being a massive gamble for the French President.
Speaking yesterday, a defiant Mr Macron insisted he would see out his term, regardless of the result.
In an interview with Le Figaro, he denied suggestions that he would quit should things not go his way in the two-stage election on June 30 and July 7, insisting he would carry on “whatever the result”.
He further rejected claims that he had made a huge mistake, insisting: “Not at all. I’m only thinking of France.
“It was a good decision and in the country’s interest. I say to the French: don’t be afraid, go and vote.
“This is the spirit of our institutions: I have listened to the French people. Now is the time for clarification. Dissolution is the clearest, most radical and strongest gesture. A gesture of great confidence in the French people.”
He also emphasised his belief that National Rally would not repeat its EU success domestically, saying: “Politics is a dynamic. I’ve never believed in opinion polls.
“The decision I’ve taken opens up a new era. A new campaign is beginning and we mustn’t look at the scores per constituency by the yardstick of those at the European elections.”
