Thousands of people protested against the right-wing National Rally (RN) in Paris and other cities across France on Saturday ahead of upcoming French parliamentary elections.

Following the RN’s lead in European elections last Sunday, police said 350,000 people were expected to march and 21,000 officers were mobilised after labour unions, student groups and rights groups called for rallies to oppose the anti-immigration, Eurosceptic party.

At least 150 marches were expected in cities including Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon and Lille.

In Paris, where police said 75,000 people gathered, the march began at 1200 GMT (5:30 pm IST) from Place de la République in the east through Bastille Square to the Place Nation.

According to the CGT union quoted by BFM TV, 250,000 people marched in Paris and a total of 640,000 across the country. Police said they arrested seven people in Paris. Police said there were 217,000 protesters across France.

Speaking at Place de la République, hard-left CGT union leader Sophie Binet told reporters: “We are marching because we are extremely worried that (RN chief) Jordan Bardella could become the next prime minister. We want to prevent this disaster.”

Carole-Anne Juste, a 22-year-old student taking part in the Paris march, said it was the first time she had participated in a protest.

He said he was “worried because people are believing the lies of this party whose heritage is actually racist,” a reference to the National Front, the RN’s predecessor, whose leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was fined for anti-Semitic or xenophobic remarks.

Juste said she wanted to “fight to preserve a country with human rights, freedom and tolerance.”

Next government

At the same march, Cecilia Lormeau, a 34-year-old teacher, said she planned to vote for the Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties. “It’s important to show that we are organized and that the RN is not just a majority of people,” she said.

President Emmanuel Macron has called early legislative elections in two stages on June 30 and July 7 after his centrist coalition was defeated by the RN in last Sunday’s vote for the European Parliament.

The first series of opinion polls projected that the RN could win the election and be in a position to form the next government.

The OpinionWay-Ve Solis poll conducted for Les Echos and Radio Classique published on Saturday forecast that the RN would lead with 33 percent of the vote in the first round of the parliamentary election, while the Popular Front would be ahead with 25 percent.

Macron’s centrist camp was at 20 percent.

At least two polls show the left not far behind the RN, but ahead of Macron’s group.

In Tours, western France, where hundreds of protesters were taking part in a march, a banner read “For freedom, for rights, for a social and democratic republic, against far-right ideas and against racism”.

Several banners read “Young people hate the F.N. (former name for the R.N.)”, while a pensioner carried a banner which read “Old people hate the R.N. too”.