Unions, independent media, citizen organisations organised a rally in Paris on Wednesday night to support the left-wing bloc and denounce the rise of the far-right in the upcoming second round of parliamentary elections.
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00:00Thousands gathered on Wednesday in Paris to protest the results of the first round of
00:11the French legislative elections after the far-right National Rally Party secured the
00:16most votes.
00:17Multiple unions, independent media and citizens' organizations were behind the demonstration
00:23calling on voters to block the rise of the far-right for the second round of the election
00:28scheduled for Sunday.
00:30Many present fear a far-right victory could curtail civil liberties due to the National
00:36Rally's history of xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
00:38If you ask me about the far-right, I don't know what will happen to all my comrades who
00:44are foreign students.
00:45I don't know what will happen to all the French bi-nationals who will still be stigmatized
00:51under the pretext that they are bi-nationals.
00:52We don't know what will happen to LGBT people, to racialized people, to women too, because
00:57the far-right is still the enemy of all these people.
01:03There is a chance that if voters mobilize massively, they could block the National Rally
01:08from winning the absolute majority in Parliament next Sunday.
01:12But voter fatigue is a major hurdle.
01:15I understand that they are fed up with it, because we are all tired of doing the little
01:19beavers nicely at every poll, but this one is not like the others, because the far-right
01:25is at the door of power and has the capacity to have the absolute majority.
01:28However, not everyone present at the demonstration agreed with the general message.
01:32I think that this is a rally that does not reflect at all the state of mind of the French.
01:37It's just a few people who got together.
01:40But deep France, which is in the countryside, which is in the province, thinks completely
01:47differently.
01:48It is much more numerous than what is happening here.
01:51More than 49 million registered voters will be heading to polling stations on Sunday in
01:56what could be a decisive election in French history.
02:00Sofia Katzenkova, reporting from Paris for Euronews.