Tens of thousands of people rallied across Europe on Saturday against sexist violence, with more than 30,000 turning out in Paris, where a separate protest against rising fuel prices brought clashes. Anti-violence rallies across France drew around 50,000 people in all, according to organiser Caroline de Haas, to answer a citizen collective's call for a "feminist tidal wave" of outrage against gender violence brought into sharp focus by the MeToo movement.
Around 1,000 braved driving rain in Rome while similar protests drew several hundred in Geneva and Athens.
Authorities put the Paris turnout at 12,000 and similar marches in Lyon, Marseille and Rennes at between 1,000 and 2,400, but De Haas felt moved to salute "the largest (feminist) mobilisation France has known," far bigger than a rally that drew some 2,000 last year. Participants clad in purple, the colour of the NousToutes women's activist protest movement, shouted slogans including "sick of rape," "end impunity for aggressors" and "a woman is never responsible for the violence she suffers," while also demanding sufficient government resources to tackle the issue.
"I am here to support all the victims and continue this struggle which started long before I came along," said French actress Muriel Robin, who had organised a similar rally last month in the capital.
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