Presidential: incidents broke out in Rennes and Lyon after the announcement of the results

Destroyed street furniture, windows of degraded bank branches.

Incidents erupted Sunday evening in the center of Rennes and Lyon, where several hundred people gathered at the announcement of the result of the first round of the presidential election, causing damage.

Read alsoFollow live all the reactions and analyzes the day after the 1st round

About 500 people, mostly young people, marched through the streets of downtown Rennes chanting anti-capitalist and anti-fascist slogans, noted an AFP journalist.

"The youth fucks national fascism, Le Pen fascist dynasty", "Burns the right", "social war" or even "Pinault execution", in allusion to the Breton businessman, could we read on registered tags on facades.

I strongly condemn the damage committed this evening in the city center of Rennes.

Democracy is not and it will never be violence or vandalism.

— Nathalie Appéré (@nathalieappere) April 10, 2022

In a square in the city center, a fire was lit with construction equipment in particular, requiring the intervention of firefighters.

Police officers intervened late in the evening to disperse the demonstration.

The socialist mayor of Rennes Nathalie Appéré reacted to this violence on her Twitter account.

“I strongly condemn the damage committed this evening in the city center of Rennes.

Democracy is not and it will never be violence or vandalism”.

Mortars firing fireworks in Lyon

In Lyon, a hundred people, according to the prefecture, also expressed their dissatisfaction after the announcement of the results, in the district of Croix-Rousse.

They made use of fireworks mortars before being dispersed at the end of the evening by the police.

Attention the BAC is at the bottom of the stairs and heads towards the plateau of the red cross!

#Antifascists #Lyon #demonstration #electionpresidentielle2022 #Presidentielle #Presidentielle2022 pic.twitter.com/WLUAVnSBTK

— Bismuth Back (@Bismuthback) April 10, 2022

According to the testimony of the mayor of the 1st arrondissement, Yasmine Bouagga (EELV) on the France 3 Rhône-Alpes antenna.

Around 10:30 p.m., a group of demonstrators "broke a bus shelter and threw projectiles at the windows" of the town hall during the counting.

Then “they entered a room adjacent to that of the counting and the assessors took them out to allow the smooth running of the counting operations.

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The presidential election on Sunday qualified outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen for the second round, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon placing himself in third position.