A demonstration has gathered 2,000 people on Saturday 23 October, bringing together historical unions and left parties but also younger and determined movements.
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For three years, a fringe of Lyon youth seizes the fight against the extreme right with more and more vigor, regardless of conventional associations and political formations, and sometimes by violence. The trend was observed in the manifestations since the uprising of “yellow vests”. This rejection of the extreme right by a part of the younger generation turned to the attempt to demonstrate forcibly, Saturday, October 23, in the procession that brought together more than 2,000 people in Lyon.
For this unique gathering in France, which aims to denounce the uninhibited resurgence of the far right, the flags of the historical unions and left parties, from the CGT to the FSU, the French Communist Party in Europe Ecology-Les Greens , float in the parade. But their meager troops seem overflowed by the young and determined protesters, shooting from the Bellecour Square instead of the Terreaux. Ultragauche, “Antifa”, feminist … The movement is divided into several facets. “With Zemmour, one feels that the extreme right is in freewheel. The youth reacts, it is good news!”, Welcomes Jérôme Faÿnel, 57 years old, historical activist of the Palestian cause, anonymous in the crowd boost. “I’m proud of you, continue the fight!” Lance Valérie Montanier, 50 years old, getting caught a voice. For the sympathizer on the left, “the political parties on the left do not seize the subject of the far right. The youth mobilizes, it is moving.”
In the lead, the young guard (JG) brandish its giant banner, appearing a guignal with a carnastier, painted red, with three flash-shaped arrows, with reference to the symbols of the 1930s anti-phase groups. More than 300 young people, aged about twenty years on average, hit hands and arms up at each Italian slogan: “Siamo Tutti Antifascisti” (“we are all antifascite”). Organized and disciplined, the JG was created in 2018, in reply to the shots of the social bastion, a group of identity dissolved in 2019 by the Ministry of the Interior, but whose members still occupy premises in the district of the Vieux- Lyon, at the foot of the Fourvière hill. “Even dissolved, the far-right groups come back under other names. They are more and more violent. Zemmour’s speeches and others encourage them. We do not want to leave the street to these people,” says Raphaël Arnault, spokesman for JG, claiming “the renewal of anti-phase control”.
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