A saddles and blows. This is how supporters of Eric Zemmour to SOS Racisme activists who were protesting this Sunday at a rally for the French far-right candidate.
During the event, several people got on some chairs and unveiled T-shirts with yellow letters that formed the phrase “no to racism”, which they began to chant. It was then that those attending the rally they started to push them and try to force them down, hitting and throwing objects at them, even chairs, as seen in a video shared by the anti-racist organization.
In that same act, a man grabbed Zemmour himself by the neck when he walked through the audience to the stage, before being apprehended by security personnel and detained by the Police, according to the Reuters agency.
Although the far-right candidate made his speech, his team has subsequently claimed that he was injured in the incident. The Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation this Monday to investigate the violent incidents that occurred during the rally, according to the aforementioned agency.
This Sunday was the first electoral act of Zemmour after formally announcing his candidacy for the presidential elections in France, to be held next April.
A journalist by profession, Zammour’s xenophobic and anti-immigration discourse, which also opposes homosexual marriage, has earned him convictions for incitement to hatred and has become a new benchmark for the extreme right in France, even challenging the leadership of Marine Le Pen, as we explain in this video of the Sixth Clave:
The violent episode was also captured by journalists who were at the event, who recorded how several men punched a young woman, whom one of them dragged by the hair. One of the activists ended the bloody face, according to images from the press and SOS Racisme.
The organization has denounced that five people were injured and two had to be evacuated by firefighters for “simple ‘No to racism’ t-shirts” and “non-violent action” and has demanded that Justice open an investigation and find the aggressors.
A man grabs the candidate
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
