French protesters stand up to far right

PARIS — Anti-racism groups joined French unions and a new left-wing coalition in protests in Paris and across France on Saturday against the surging far right, with campaigning underway for snap parliamentary elections.

France's former president Francois Hollande on Saturday said he would stand for parliament again.

The French Interior Ministry said 250,000 people turned out to protest, 75,000 of them in Paris. Despite rainy and windy weather, those who fear that the elections will produce France's first far-right government since World War II gathered at Place de la Republique before marching through eastern Paris. Up to 21,000 police and gendarmes were deployed.

The protesters held placards reading "Liberty for all, Equality for all and Fraternity with all" and "Let's break frontiers, documents for all, no to the immigration bill".

In the French Riviera city of Nice, protesters marched down Jean Medecin Avenue, chanting against the National Rally, its leader Jordan Bardella as well as against President Emmanuel Macron. Local police said 2,500 people took part.

Hollande, France's president from 2012 to 2017, left office with record levels of unpopularity. He is hated by parts of the radical left, and even the Socialist leadership regards him with suspicion.

He said he would stand as an MP for the southwestern Correze department for the New Popular Front, a left-wing grouping formed for the elections that includes the Socialists and Greens.

"An exceptional decision for an exceptional situation," Hollande told reporters in the department's Tulle town, explaining his comeback.

Hollande has already backed the new broad left-wing alliance, saying that we "must all do everything to make sure the far right does not come to power in France".

Crowds have been gathering daily since the anti-immigration National Rally made historic gains in the European Parliament elections recently, crushing President Emmanuel Macron's pro-business moderates and prompting him to dissolve the National Assembly.

New elections for the lower house of parliament were set in two rounds, for June 30 and July 7.

Macron remains president until 2027 and is in charge of foreign policy and defense, but his presidency would be weakened if the National Rally wins and takes power of the government and domestic policy.

"We need a democratic and social upsurge — if not the extreme right will take power," French unions said in a statement on Friday. "Our Republic and our democracy are in danger."

Opinion polls suggest the National Rally will be ahead in the first round of the parliamentary elections. The party came out on top in the European elections, garnering more than 30 percent of the vote cast in France, almost twice as many votes as Macron's party Renaissance.

In the remaining three years of Macron's term in office, he would retain control over foreign affairs and defense regardless of the result of the French parliamentary elections.

Agencies Via Xinhua