In Nantes, the arrival of Eric Zemmour causes clashes – teller report

Eric Zemmour’s promotional tour is causing more and more tension. This Saturday afternoon, while the far-right polemicist was going to hold a meeting at the Zenith in Nantes as part of the release of his new book, his arrival provoked the protest of several local collectives. Around 4 p.m., individuals clashed with the police present on the spot.

Several hundred opponents, responding to the call in particular of the collective “Nantes revolted”, managed to enter the enclosure of the Zenith, to block a door of the site and to force the gates. The police used tear gas to push back the anti-Zemmour who were facing, a hundred meters away, several dozen supporters of the polemicist, at the Atlantis car park, near the western ring road of Nantes.

Shortly before the arrival of Eric Zemmour in the Nantes performance hall, the mobile gendarmes were trying to push back the anti-Zemmour, who tried to block the four-lane separating the Zénith from the car park, according to AFP. “It was predictable since the ultra-left in Nantes had for project to disrupt the meeting of Mr. Zemmour, reacted on LCI Thierry Audouin, assistant secretary at the Alternative Police 44 union. There was a strong risk. Nantes is an important place for the ultra-left “.

“650 people including 150 ultra-left and yellow vests with particularly violent behavior towards the participants engaged the public order system put in place to avoid clashes. Several assaults were carried out against the police, in particular with the degradation of a police vehicle “, lamented the Prefecture of Pays de la Loire and Loire-Atlantique.

Eric Zemmour’s movements seem to provoke more and more hostile reactions: the day before, invited by local associations, the polemicist had already received a stormy reception by 300 people contesting his visit to Pleurtuit (Ille-et-Vilaine), to the occasion of its promotional Tour de France.

Also at the beginning of the week, the essayist came to present his book in Biarritz, had been welcomed by “1500 fans as well as 300 activists who wanted to express their disapproval and anger”, report South West. In Corsica, on October 9, ahead of a public meeting organized in the port of Ajaccio, an altercation between supporters of Eric Zemmour and people hostile to his arrival had broken out.