As in Geneva where groups of antifas had welcomed him in an already tense atmosphere, Eric Zemmour's visit to Marseille was the subject of demonstrations of rejection.
The polemicist, he had come to tell his four truths to the inhabitants: “
Marseille is disintegrated by immigration.
(...) If nothing is done, all of France will be like Marseille, a city submerged by immigration and partly Islamized,
”he notably declared to the press after a visit to the historic district of Panier and Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica.
Marseille, a cosmopolitan city?
“
It's a myth,
” he added.
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Friday morning, aboard the TGV to Marseille, he had to get off the train in Aix-en-Provence instead of the Marseille city, where demonstrators opposed to his arrival were waiting for him.
His entourage explained this change of arrival by the need to “
adapt
”, accusing “
the media
” of having transmitted his program to “
organizations by relaying calls for violence against Eric Zemmour
”.
He finally wandered briefly in the Panier district, under the cries of demonstrators who chanted "
Zemmour break, anti-racist Marseille
". He was guided by an elected municipal ex-RN, Jeanne Marti. "
They are not Marseillais, they are militants
", he then affirmed. The journalist of
Liberation
Tristan Berteloot present on the spot, speaks of a "
short visit
" which "
went badly
" because of "
insults
" and "
throwing of eggs
".
Éric Zemmour subsequently spoke with representatives of France Police, a minority police union, in front of whom he defended for the police "
the monopoly of force and legitimate violence
".
Several incidents in the evening
In the evening, 200 to 300 people demonstrated against his coming near the Canebière, the famous artery leading down to the Old Port, with the slogan "
Zemmour, Marseille is not yours
".
Present on the spot, the independent journalist Clément Lanot declared that the face-to-face of the anti-Zemmour militants with the police force was tense, the demonstrators having in particular fired rockets of fireworks against a hotel protected by gendarmes, who responded with tear gas jets.
Still on Friday evening, the restaurant where Éric Zemmour dined was also targeted by fierce protests from his opponents, who sprayed the storefront of the establishment with paint and piled up at the entrance of the gutted bins, according to the journalist of
Valeurs. Current
Jules Torres.
Zemmour expected in the Old Port
For his part, the socialist mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan, who at the same time signed a territorial reception and integration contract with the interministerial delegate for the reception and integration of refugees, underlined that “
everything in our history ( ...) acts as a bulwark against the refusal of the other, against speeches of rejection, hatred, divisions
”. "
Those who manipulate and twist our history of France to better rewrite it in abject propaganda would be well inspired by coming here to Marseille, the city which gave its name to the national anthem, to review our history and our identity
", a- he added in an allusion to Eric Zemmour. For the time being, he has not condemned the incidents that occurred during the arrival of the polemicist.
The latter must go this Saturday to the Old Port, to the fish market, after a "
Provencal meeting
" towards the Cathedral of the Major.
On Friday, the diocese of Marseille had also asked him not to speak in the “sacred” enclosure of the “Good Mother”: “that
he visits Notre-Dame is his right, but it is not not the place for a political declaration
”.
Éric Zemmour's teams have let it be known that it had never been planned to speak in public in the Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde basilica.
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