Two people were arrested, one of whom was taken into police custody, following incidents that occurred on the sidelines of an “antifa” demonstration that brought together more than 600 people in Nantes city center on Friday evening, according to police sources. A torchlight procession began around 7 p.m., the crowd chanting slogans “against fascism, capitalism, authoritarianism”, with smoke bombs and fireworks.
“Down with the state, the cops and the fachos,” chanted the demonstrators, according to videos posted on Twitter. The window of a Zara store was smashed and the front of a Monoprix degraded, according to a police source. Jets of projectiles were fired at the security forces who responded with tear gas canisters. The demonstration then went to a “bar known to welcome far-right activists”, according to the “Autonomous and committed media” Nantes Révoltée.
The mayor of Nantes condemns
A waiter and a customer at the bar were injured in an altercation with antifa activists but they did not wish to file a complaint, according to police sources. At the same time, a mass in memory of Louis XVI guillotined on January 21, 1793 was held “without overflow” at the Saint-Clément church, not far from the procession of the demonstration, according to police sources.
The PS mayor of Nantes Johanna Rolland condemned “strongly” on Twitter “the damage to which our city center has been subjected” and provided her “support for the traders concerned”. The LR president of the Pays-de-la-Loire region Christelle Morançais condemned the “extremely serious” facts. “Support and tribute to our police officers who are doing a remarkable job in the face of these ultraviolent groups,” she tweeted.