People wave flags during an anti-gay marriage demonstration in Paris, yesterday.
PARIS: Tens of thousands of opponents of a gay marriage bill thronged the streets of Paris yesterday in a last-ditch bid to block the legislation, under the watchful eye of police after recent violence over the divisive issue.
Paris police estimated the march attracted 45,000 people but organisers said 270,000 turned out on a sunny afternoon in the French capital.
The mass protest comes just two days ahead of a decisive parliamentary vote on the bill — which also allows adoption by gay couples — that would make France the 14th country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage.
Clutching French flags, dressed in pink and blue, the colours of the movement, carrying children or pushing buggies, protesters shouted slogans against President Francois Hollande as they made their way through the city.
“We’ve been to all the protests,” said a 32-year-old mother who only gave her first name Camille, as she breast-fed her four-month-old son.
“We’re here for children’s rights. We don’t want the state to be complicit in a child being deprived of a father or a mother,” she said.
Organisers and security forces were on high alert as they sought to avoid a recurrence of violence that marred anti-bill protests last week, amid warnings far-right extremists intent on sparking unrest have infiltrated the opposition movement.
“We want a peaceful demonstration and we reject all groups that directly target homosexual people,” said Frigide Barjot, spokeswoman for the “Manif pour Tous” group that spearheads the anti-bill movement.
She said she had called on “professional security services” to help out, and police sources said three protesters carrying canisters of teargas had been detained so far.
The leader of the far-right “Nationalist Youths” group was also spotted in the procession. AFP
