ENORMOUS rallies against anti-semitism took place in cities and towns across France last night.

Thousands took part in a demonstration at the Place de la Republique in Paris, with all political parties except the far-right taking part. Communist Party (PCF) leader Fabien Roussel attended alongside the head of the PCF’s European election list Ian Brossat and the latter’s campaign committee chair Lassana Bathily.

Mr Bathily, a Malian-born Muslim, was given French citizenship for his heroic role as a shop assistant in the Hypercache kosher supermarket siege of January 2015, when he helped to hide customers from self-declared Isis-supporting gunman Amedy Coulibaly who attacked the supermarket and killed four people, all Jews, in an anti-semitic killing spree.