It is 2:30 p.m. this Saturday, January 29, on the Bouchard board, in the city center of Caen. You have to have an eye to find the activists of the Normandes with Zemmour, very discreet in the face of another gathering hostile to the far-right candidate. Suddenly, “Break off!” ring out, aiming at a small group of women. At their feet, a bag full of posters bearing the likeness of Éric Zemmour.
Supporters of the former polemicist should gather around thirty on the square, according to their estimates. Warned of this demonstration, anti-fascist activists had initiated a counter-demonstration. Enough to dissuade several pro-Zemmour activists from coming. But some are there, quickly surrounded by a hundred people singing hostile songs. “If we look at what is happening, I rather have the impression that the hatred is in the camp opposite, not among these young women who support Zemmour”, ironically Patricia, who says “to recognize herself completely in the ideas of Éric Zemmour, the best person to represent us”.
These women want to challenge the idea that their favorite has a backward vision of the place of women in society. In the crowd, an opponent launches to the activists: “As a woman, I need to feel supported for my rights. But I don’t feel supported by people like you. Response from a young Norman with Zemmour: “Obviously I don’t support you, we don’t have the same demonstration! »
Flour jets and exfiltration
Discussions are taking place around Éric Zemmour’s positions on the inclusion of disabled students, immigration and women’s rights. “If you call yourself feminists, leave Muslim women alone,” said one woman, to whom the activist replied, “I didn’t say I was a feminist.”
Cornered, the four to five supporters of the candidate are struggling to find room to argue, regretting the turn of their early afternoon. Opposite, many challenge them, denouncing the ideas of the former journalist. Remarks on the background of tunes like “Fascism will not pass”.
Three activists are exfiltrated by car by a relative. They move away under boos and a few jets of flour. Remaining in the square, another young woman is covered with it. The procession a little dissipated, she agrees to develop some messages that she would have liked to convey in the public space this Saturday afternoon: “The anti-fascists do not understand that women can support Zemmour, because of his so-called ideas misogynist. But it’s just that Mr. Zemmour makes a difference between women and men. Men are more made to be leaders, and women are more in the shadows, which does not prevent them from participating in politics. Me, for example, I prefer to be in the shadows but besides that, I put up posters, distribute leaflets. It’s just as useful. »
Basically, the 27-year-old young woman appreciates Éric Zemmour’s desire “to put France back in the forefront. You should not be ashamed to say that you are proud to be French. However, when we say that, we are taken for racists ”. The opponents persist and sign, noisy and reassembled. “We did not come to chat, slice a feminist activist. We wanted to show that the extreme right has and will never have its place”.
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