Thousands of protesters banded together in Paris and Madrid today to oppose war on Iraq.
The Parisian afternoon march was dominated by festive student groups and pro-Palestinian organizations.
"Chirac, veto, Chirac, veto!" cried Jacques, a member of the anti-globalization group Attac, in support of the French president's hint that he might veto a new UN Security Council resolution calling for war on Baghdad.
The mid-week gathering, the third anti-war protest in the French capital in less than two months, brought out at least 7,000 and as many as 20,000 marchers, according to police estimates, and kicked off at the central Luxembourg Gardens.
Iraqi and US citizens turned out in smaller groups, too, along with left-wing and union groups, to show their opposition to an anticipated US-led attack on Baghdad and support for French and Russian resistance to a new UN resolution that would authorize war.
"It will be a moral victory if the United Nations does not sanction this war," said a 15-year US resident of France, who sported a red US cap and tiny stickers of the US flag stamped with "patriot".
University and high school students, responding to a US-organized call to boycott class and protest, rallied behind the call "Books not Bombs".
At least 10,000 Spanish students, according to police estimates, and possibly up to 50,000, according to organizers, rallied in Madrid against the war in the same international student protest movement.
Peace demonstrations also took place Wednesday in the Spanish city of Barcelona, the southern French city Toulouse, and in several other university towns.
AFP