The gloom persisted, even as tens of thousands of people turned up for the march. "We hope that this Pride march won't be our last," one told Le Monde, as organisers warned that the rise of the far-right National Rally (RN) could sharply curtail LGBTQ+ rights.
About 10 miles away, a similar sense of anxiety hovered over hundreds gathered to remember Nahel Merzouk, the teenager shot dead by a police officer during a traffic check a year ago. The timing of the tribute to Merzouk, one day before France flocked to the polls in the first round of snap parliamentary elections, was a "powerful symbol," Assa Traoré, who has been fighting for justice since her brother, Adama, died in police custody in 2016, told Reuters.
The RN has promised to overhaul the legal status of police so that, if they use arms during an intervention, the presumption will be that it was in self-defence.
"We, from the working-class neighbourhoods, are the first-hand victims of these elections," Traoré added. "We ... are afraid every day that our sons, brothers, or husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our daily life." While exit polls suggest the RN has come top in yesterday's first round of parliamentary elections, with projections that the party will win about 34% of the vote, the final result, which won't be known until after the second round on 7 July, remains highly uncertain.
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