On Sunday, following the results of the first round of elections in France, far-left protestors took to the streets of Paris to protest, with many self-described anti-fascists complaining that the people had exercised their democratic rights to vote for a party they deemed "far-right." While the demonstrations began peacefully, as the night progressed and more extreme factions showed up, violence erupted.
Results showed that Marine Le Pen's right-wing populist National Rally and its allies had emerged as the winners, at just over 33 percent of the vote. Current president Emmanuel Macron's centrist Ensemble coalition dropped down to third place at 20 percent, behind the left-wing New Popular Front coalition led by Jean-Luc Melenchon, which garnered nearly 28 percent.
Footage of the beginning of the demonstration showed activists holding Pride flags and "antifasciste" banners chanting about what they believe will happen if the National Rally repeats its performance in the following rounds of the election and forms a government.
The far-left was joined by pro-Palestinian protestors, who chanted in Arabic about an intifada. One held up a sign depicting Georges Abdallah, a communist militant from Lebanon who had been sentenced to life in prison in France over the murder of an Israeli diplomat and assistant US military attaché in 1982.
As night fell, the protests escalated, with those taking part resorting to more violent tactics. Fires were set at the Place de la Republique and in the streets, masked men smashed shop windows seemingly at random, and rioters clashed with police. The violence continued into the earlier hours of the morning, when law enforcement finally got the crowds to disperse.
"Tonight's lesson is that the far-right is on the doorstep of power," Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said, per the Times. "Never before in our democracy has the National Assembly risked being dominated by the far-right as it was tonight."
He went on to state that the objective of those opposed to Le Pen's party was to prevent them from receiving a majority in the second round of voting, set to take place on July 7.
