Is France on the brink of a new era? It seems so, if one reads the developments that have ensued after the proposal for gay marriage passed the French Parliament and was ratified into law.
No sooner had the law been made part of the French constitution that a famous right wing intellectual, Dominique Venner, shot himself inside Notre Dame Cathedral to protest the passage of the law. And that had already been preeceded by wide ranging protest in the capital and elsewhere.
But the new demonstration, planned for today, promises to be even more worrisome. More than 200,000 demonstrators are expected to blanket Parisian streets. Most of them will be ultras, a common term for neo-nazi and fascist sympathizers.
This massive outpour comes on the heels of a lesser demonstration last Saturday in which 50 people were arrested.
In fact the right wing party, headed by ms. Le Pen, has already challenged the gay marriage law, but was rebuffed when the Constitutional Council threw the challenge out.
More than 4,500 policemen have been deployed to the demonstration site to avoid violence.
Source : France 24/ 5.26.13
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