A high-risk event, and highly supervised. The march against anti-Semitism planned for Sunday in Paris, and initiated by the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, will start from the Esplanade des Invalides (7th arrondissement), at 15 p.m., to reach the Place Edmond Rostand (6th arrondissement). "The march will take the Avenue du Maréchal Galliéni, the Quai d'Orsay, the Boulevards Saint-Germain and Saint-Michel, between 15 p.m. and 19 p.m.," the Paris police prefecture said in a statement.
A specific traffic system will be put in place, with the prefecture warning of "road traffic likely to be severely disrupted on the left bank in Paris". "Motorists are strongly advised to drive around the area for the duration of the event." Many metro and RER stations will be closed, such as Concorde, Assemblée nationale, Solferino, Saint-Germain des Prés, Mabillon, Odéon and Cluny-la-Sorbonne.
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3000 police and gendarmes deployed
This march, named "for the Republic and against anti-Semitism, for France of human rights and for United Nation, to denounce the bearers of hatred and for the release of hostages including eight compatriots", will mobilize more than 3000,<> police and gendarmes, as announced by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin Friday evening. It is a "very heavy security apparatus", with elite units such as the BIS also being deployed to "prevent anyone who would want to attack the demonstrators".
Presence of the National Rally, France Insoumise will not participate
Yaël Braun-Pivet and Gérard Larcher will lead the procession behind a banner bearing the words "For the Republic, against anti-Semitism". Since October 7, 1247,<> anti-Semitic acts have been recorded. The march, which will not take a speech or a stage, is intended to be "a cry from consciences to declare to the world that the French Republic does not allow, and never will, allow anti-Semitism to prosper," the two leaders wrote in their joint appeal launched Tuesday. However, President Emmanuel Macron will not be present, Le Figaro has learned from the Élysée. The presence of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has been confirmed, as well as those of former French presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
The announced presence of Marine Le Pen and the National Rally, as well as Éric Zemmour and Reconquête, was castigated by the left. This decried presence of the RN is the main reason put forward by La France Insoumise (LFI) not to participate in this march, the political party judging that we "do not fight against anti-Semitism and racism in confusion". In an incendiary message on X and denounced by the rest of the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounced a "meeting" of "friends of unconditional support for the massacre," in an allusion to the "unconditional support" given by Yaël Braun-Pivet to Israel, three days after the bloody Hamas attacks. However, the left will be present with the Socialist, Communist and Green parties.
Catholics, but few Muslims
Moreover, the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) will send its director of the service of relations with Judaism Christophe Le Sourt as well as its secretary general Hugues de Woillemont. The Bishop of Nanterre, Matthieu Rougé, will also be present. Several imams and Muslim bodies said they would not take part in the march, regretting that it was being held "without a word about Islamophobia". "The Grand Mosque will not take part in the march planned for next Sunday against anti-Semitism," the imam of the Grand Mosque of Paris, Abdennour Tahraoui, said Friday during his sermon to the faithful. "Can we do the same march for anti-Muslim (acts)?" he asked.
Already on Wednesday, the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) had considered that "this march, which has the exclusive objective of denouncing anti-Semitism without a word about Islamophobia, is unfortunately not likely to bring people together." The imam of Bordeaux, Tareq Oubrou, said on LCI that "there will not be many Muslims in this demonstration", pointing to a "conflict of interpretation of the initiative". Even if, according to him, "given the circumstances, marching against anti-Semitism is a moral and civic obligation." The imam of Drancy, Hassen Chalghoumi, said he would go to the march "to say loud and clear 'no to hatred and anti-Semitism'."