The police have maintained the two groups at a distance, in a tense atmosphere.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
A project for a reception center for asylum seekers, two events. The small town of Saint-Brévin-les-Pins (Loire-Atlantique) has seen march between its market place and its town hall, sometimes supporters, sometimes opponents of this project. Saturday, February 25, the gendarmerie counted them respectively at 900 and 380 people.
In the morning, the supporters of the project paraded with banners on which we could read: “There are no foreigners on this earth”, “Fraternity”, “for freedoms and against the ideas of ‘extreme right “, and chanting the slogan” Saint-Brévin, land of host “. In the procession, you could see flags from the CGT, the League for Human Rights, the Cimade or Emmaus. “We are favorable to the reception of migrants, we say that Saint-Brévin must remain a land of welcome,” explained Philippe Croze, president of the collective of attentive and solidarity Brévinois, according to whom a hundred people must be welcomed in The new reception center for asylum seekers (CADA), from the end of the year.
“When someone needs help, you have to be there”
“Each person is a being who needs freedom, solidarity, justice, fraternity, and when someone needs help, you have to be there,” said Christine, 66 years old, questioned by The France-Presse agency (AFP). She had come from the neighboring department, the Vendée, to demonstrate. Some 250 demonstrators later remained in the city center, until the demonstrators opposed to the CADA project gathered in front of the town hall in the early afternoon. The police have maintained the two groups at a distance, in a tense atmosphere.
“Immigration is harmful for them, as for us “
Opponents of the project, who deplore the proximity between the future CADA and a school, chanted the slogan “France to the French”, wooded of the flags of the Reconquest Far Right Party! of Eric Zemmour, as well as a sign on which we could read: “Yes to controlled immigration, no M. Macron, not just how! Not anywhere! 110 Migrants within our school , scandalous “.
“I am against any increase in migration and the State does not take the means it takes to prevent migrants from coming to land, by sea,” said Olivier, an 82 -year -old demonstrator, questioned also by AFP. “Our approach is not at all racist, but on the contrary aims to show, both to the French and to migrants, that immigration is harmful to them, as for us”, argued, for his part, Alain Escada , President of the Catholic Organization Traditionalist Caritas.
December 11, two previous demonstrations of opponents and supporters to the Cada project had gathered 150 and 250 people respectively in Saint-Brévin-les-Pins.