Above photo: Protests against racism and the far right in France, March 22, 2025. Sarah Legrain/X.
Hundreds of thousands marched in over 200 cities across France to protest racism, hatred, and the rise of the far right.
Hundreds of thousands of people swept through the streets of over 200 locations across France on Saturday, March 22, in a massive national demonstration against racism and the far right. The mobilization, launched by nearly 600 organizations – including trade unions, associations, informal collectives, and left political parties – was a collective response to racism, Islamophobia, and other forms of systemic discrimination and the escalation of hate-driven rhetoric promoted by the right.
The demonstrations were taken up by participants as a show of unity, standing in stark contrast to what many speakers at the demonstrations described as attempts by the government and far-right forces to divide the public. “To unite the people, we need to eradicate all forms of division, all poisons – starting with the poison of racism,” said Danièle Obono, a parliamentarian from France Unbowed.
An estimated 1.2 million people in France experience at least one racist incident every year, ranging from threats and discrimination to physical violence – even murder. Yet only a fraction of these incidents are reported, and even fewer are investigated and prosecuted. This reflects not only a deep-seated mistrust of the institutions meant to fight racism, but their own bias against groups that are constantly exposed to violence.
“Racism, in all its forms, serves to divide people and justify inequalities,” France Unbowed wrote in a policy brief ahead of the demonstration. “We fight racism at its roots, to unite everyone with a real stake in transforming society. We’re committed to a universalist project that stands firmly against racism and discrimination. In the Republic, universal rights are not up for negotiation.”
The party’s parliamentary group also laid out a series of proposals, ranging from legislative reform to changes in education and cultural curricula, including a radical rethinking of how France confronts its complicity in colonialism. This includes calls to open discussions on reparations and to officially recognize the 1961 massacre of Algerian liberation protesters as a state-sanctioned crime. Implementing such reforms, France Unbowed argued, would challenge the dominant narrative, echoed by the current government, that blames migrants and minorities for France’s economic decline.
Fighting Fascism Before It Takes Root
On Sunday, protesters emphasized the link between racism, growing Islamophobia, and the electoral rise of the far right, not only in France but across the Global North. The demonstration, they said, was a call to resist far-right bigotry before it becomes even more deeply rooted in society.
Raphaël Arnault, another France Unbowed parliamentarian, rejected the mainstream media portrayal of the rise of the National Rally as inevitable, noting that the 2024 elections had already proven otherwise. In that vote, Arnault said, thousands of young people backed the progressive platform of the New Popular Front, signaling their desire for a different kind of society than the one offered by the far-right and embraced by the Macronist bloc.
Similarly, Rima Hassan, a member of the European Parliament, who recently faced attacks over her pro-Palestinian activism, said that Saturday’s demonstration helped reclaim the narrative and offer a different picture of society. “This mobilization is a demonstration of love,” Hassan said during the Paris march. “We don’t often speak of love in politics, but the truth is, there can be no politics without love.”
Organizers stressed that Saturday’s rallies should be only the beginning of a broad, coordinated resistance against the far right, envisioning more mobilizations in the near future. “The Nazis seized power because no one stopped them,” Arnault warned. “If we don’t stop the fascists from the beginning, they won’t hold back. For them, the genocide in Gaza is only a first step – it serves as a vindication of mass murder.”