Demonstrations also took place in Lille, Bordeaux or La Défense, near Paris, but the main one took place in Angers where around 900 people gathered. A counter-demonstration, authorized by the prefecture, attracted the same number of participants.
Slight incidents broke out between the two camps. According to the prefecture, two arrests took place in the ranks of the “counter-demonstration“.
According to the AFP photographer present at the scene, the police fired tear gas canisters.
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Other incidents took place in Rennes, when counter-demonstrators tried to prevent the declared rally.
On the Place Charles de Gaulle, in the city center, around 250 people demonstrated with green flags “freedom, equality, paternity“. Some 600 counter-demonstrators, mostly young people, tried to prevent this rally, throwing projectiles or chanting.”break up!“.
The police tried to protect the declared demonstration, using the water cannon and launching tear gas at the counter-demonstrators. But with the wind, the gas returned to the declared rally.
“We are very shocked, since (…) the start of the demonstration, we have been attacked by counter-demonstrators. This is the first time in Rennes that there is such an outburst of violence against us“, Hubert des Minières, coordinator of the event and representative of the”Demonstration for all“.
According to the Twitter account of the Ille-et-Vilaine police, three people were arrested for violence against the police, rebellion, contempt and throwing projectiles.
Near Paris, in the business district of Defense, nearly 300 people according to an AFP journalist shouted slogans, among which: “Paternity is not an option and maternity is not a benefit” or “Macron, your law, we don’t want it“.
Caroline Roux, from Alliance Vita, felt that “a risk to women’s health“and said he was against”conservation of gametes by lucrative establishments“.
“The government should only deal with the health, social and economic crisis“, declared for his part Ludovine de la Rochère, president of La Manif pour tous.
In Lille, some 400 people according to the prefecture gathered in the afternoon at Place de la République, in the rain.
“Until now, we have been talking about children’s rights. Today, that turns into a right to the child. So I am here to defend children, because I believe that a child who is born without a father is discriminated against. He has the right to have a father and a mother“Vianney Cuvelier, a 53-year-old graphic designer, told AFP.
Other demonstrations took place in France, especially in Bordeaux in the presence of 450 people, according to the prefecture.
The bioethics bill and its flagship measure, the opening of the PMA to all women, will come back from February 2, at second reading, in the chamber of the Senate dominated by the opposition.
Claiming sixty national rallies for the weekend, the organizers said a demonstration was scheduled for Sunday in front of the Ministry of Health in Paris.
