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And France 24's Antonia Kerrigan is at the National Rally Protest in Paris
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Good afternoon, Antonia. What is the atmosphere like at the protest today where you are
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Well, I'm at Place Vauban, just next to the Invalides in Central Palace
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The square behind me has slowly filled up over the last few hours
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As you can hear, behind me there is pop music blaring. We're currently on ABBA and an absolute sea of tricker laws
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Now, you can tell this is a very carefully stage-managed affair. On arrival, journalists and members of the public are stopped and searched
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not by police, and the police themselves have said this isn't an necessary
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this isn't an obligatory measure when you organise such an event, but by the party's internal security and protection department
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Of course, this may reflect organizers' fears of such an event getting out of hand
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They've carefully stopped and searched people. You can also notice behind me that there are no, none of those handmade cardboard signs with slogans on them
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All the banners we can see are very specifically either support of Marine Le Pen in the abstract or Marine Le Pen for President 2027
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So you can see that there have been clear directives saying, do this, don't do this
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This is what we're here to do. This is a rally in support of Marine Le Pen and not a protest against the judiciary
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It has many of the markings of a campaign rally. Marine Le Pen has indeed called it the starting gun of the 2027 presidential election campaign Although it remains ambiguous the slogan that we are seeing on the big screens let save democracy which of course calls into question what exactly
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attendance participants think that they are saving democracy from. And French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has said it is neither healthy nor desirable to
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protest against the court ruling. You mentioned there that those people attending have been
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instructed not to really attack the judges but has there been much discontent with the justice
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system at the protest? Well it's not clear what they've been told but very clearly there does
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seem to be a firm party line. Everyone I've spoken to has denounced the ruling against
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Marine Le Pen and more specifically her sentencing her five years of inelectability
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as an unjust, politically motivated decision or is reflective of a politically motivated double standard
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But when I've asked people, are you here to show your support for Marine Le Pen
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or protest against the judiciary, they've all been very clear that they're not here to protest against the judiciary
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So it does seem like there is this firm party line. Once again, there are no banners commenting on the judiciary
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All we've heard in terms of chanting is Marine, in her first name, repeated by an uproarious crowd. Although, as I say, everyone I have
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spoken to has said that this decision by the judiciary is unfair, and many of them have
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expressed sentiments like anger. So, with all the markings of a campaign rally, there
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are certainly nevertheless some giveaways of a protest. Thank you very much for that, Antonia Kerrigan, who is at the protest in Paris
