PARIS: Tens of thousands marched through Paris yesterday to protest a new gay marriage law, with police on high alert amid warnings hardliners could infiltrate the demonstration and cause trouble.
One of President Francois Hollande’s campaign pledges, the bill allowing same-sex marriage and adoption was voted into law on May 18 following months of protests across a country that has been bitterly divided over the issue.
“Yes to human dignity”, one banner read as protesters blowing whistles and horns marched. One man dressed in black, holding a scythe and wearing a mask of Hollande stood behind a coffin in which lay a mannequin dressed as Marianne, the emblem of France.
Some 4,500 security forces have been mobilised for this last-ditch show-of-force, which has seen opponents of the law travel to Paris from across France in specially chartered trains and buses.
In Poland some 10,000 protesters marched in solidarity with the French, to defend the traditional family structure.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls has warned that so-called “ultras” — many of them far-right nationalists—are expected to infiltrate the protest and cause unrest, and advised parents not to bring their children with them.
Many in the protest had however ignored the warning, bringing their children as others had in previous demonstrations.
“We keep hearing about a far-right movement, I can see only families here,” said one man called Raoul, who came from the city of Dijon, some 300km away.
By mid-afternoon, no incidents had been reported despite the presence of far-right activists, some of whom left the protest and briefly unfurled a banner urging Hollande to resign on the Socialist party’s headquarters.
Supporters and opponents of the bill began protesting last autumn when it was adopted by the cabinet, and continued to do so at regular intervals throughout the country during the legislative process.
But as the bill neared the final stages of approval, anti-gay marriage demonstrations were often disrupted by radicals and at times descended into violence.
Fears of unrest on Sunday have also been compounded by violence that erupted earlier this month during celebrations marking football club Paris Saint-Germain’s league victory that saw tourists attacked and shop and car windows smashed.
And late Saturday, police detained 50 people involved in an anti-gay marriage protest on the busy Champs-Elysees street that saw some firing smoke cannisters.
Sunday’s protest is organised by the “Manif Pour Tous” — the ringleaders of the movement —and has been divided into three, separate processions that will converge on the Invalides esplanade in central Paris.
AFP
