• Saturday night in Carnac, several dozen demonstrators occupied the square in front of the church to prevent spectators from entering.
  • "Following a demonstration by a fundamentalist Catholic movement of the extreme right (militants outside the parish of Carnac) (...), the concert of Kali Malone was canceled," lamented the organizers.

Several dozen people, opposed to a concert by the American artist Kali Malone in a church in Carnac (Morbihan), prevented the holding of the show Saturday. According to the organizers and the mayor, the protesters had the "profile of the Catholic far right". "One of my deputies took a slap from one of the few young women who were in the audience," lamented the mayor of Carnac, Olivier Lepick, indicating that he would file a complaint Sunday.

The elected official explains that he "arrived on the spot following a call from the gendarmerie" and found that about forty demonstrators "occupied the square in front of the church and prevented people (...) to go back." These demonstrators were "quite young, between 25 and 35 years old" and had the "profile of the Catholic extreme right," he said, adding that "none is from Carnac, none is from the parish."

"Following a demonstration of a fundamentalist Catholic movement of the extreme right (militants outside the parish of Carnac) involving about twenty individuals (...), the concert of Kali Malone was canceled," lamented the organizers in a statement. It was one of the concerts of the "You Origin" festival which takes place "in the middle of the menhirs but also in the church of Saint-Cornély and the chapel of Kergroix".

"Sad to give in to this type of bullying"

"The mayor of Saint-Brevin has just resigned, I would not say that it is our daily life, but this kind of demonstrations, aggressiveness on elected officials is more and more significant," regretted Olivier Lepick explaining that he was "particularly sad to give in to this type of intimidation". "Following a call with Father Dominique, who is the assignee of the church, we decided to cancel the concert around 23 p.m., because no cultural event beats the violence that these young people were willing to use," he said.

"There were not many gendarmes and not many policemen, so it was a bit complicated," he added, adding that a first concert of the artist had gone smoothly Friday in the church. When he arrived on site, Olivier Lepick said that the representative of the demonstrators had explained to him "that he was against the fact that electronic music is played in the church". The elected official then replied "that the bishopric, the parish committee, our parish priest, everyone had validated this contract and that it was in no way a desecration or a lack of respect for the faith."

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