Wild demonstration in Toulouse: does the presidential majority fear the return of violence?
By Magali Vogel
Published on
Sunday April 24, 2022, Emmanuel Macron won the second round of the presidential election. He is thus renewed for a term of five years as Head of State. Shortly after the result of the vote, in the streets of Toulouse, several hundred people expressed their dissatisfaction. Present on site, a journalist fromNews Toulouse was able to see that Emmanuel Macron’s re-election to the Elysée was not to everyone’s taste. The demonstrators in question first marched behind a banner “Ni Macron, ni Le Pen, revolution”.
Garbage fires in the city center
This demonstration degenerated. From trash fires were lit and showcases broken. To disperse the crowd, the police used teargas. Scenes reminiscent of the violence experienced in the city center during the Yellow Vests crisis, at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, even if the damage has nothing to do with that observed at the time – a demonstration had for example induce around 100,000 euros in damages just for the town hall at the beginning of 2019.
“They don’t respect democracy”
On Sunday, voters, who had largely chosen Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, voted overwhelmingly for the outgoing president in the second. Emmanuel Macron won 77.5% of the vote in the Pink City, against 58.5% nationally. Victory or not, far left movements had planned to pound the pavement, behind the slogan “Ni Macron, ni Le Pen”.
Faced with the excesses observed on April 24, does the presidential majority fear a return of the demonstrations, key overflows? Referent of the party La République en Marche (LREM) in Haute-Garonne, Alice Dausse observe: “There weren’t demonstrations just in Toulouse, but what happened is shocking. It was a concentration of people who were neither for Emmanuel Macron nor for Marine Le Pen and which does not respect the principle of democracy”.
“Not comparable” with the yellow vests
“This demonstration had anarchic resonance”, continues Alice Dausse. “There is not much we can do about this, and I greatly regret the damage that has been caused in the city center. Nevertheless, we cannot compare this to the demonstrations experienced during the yellow vests crisis ”.
Alice Dausse takes the opportunity, too, to recall that at the base, the yellow vests were “not thugs”, but in French in search of purchasing power.
“We must not put all people in the same basket. The yellow vests of the first hour are not thugs. If a crisis like this were to happen again, Emmanuel Macron said it, he would not manage it in the same way”.
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