PARIS, January 31. /TASS/. Participants in a protest in central Paris against France's membership in the European Union tore down the EU flag. More than 1,000 people took part in the demonstration, according to a TASS correspondent.

"This is a national march for France’s exit from the European Union, for the return of our independence," Florian Philippot, the leader of France’s The Patriots party, who called for the demonstration, told TASS.

In France, almost everyone suffers from the EU, he said. "This also applies to our farmers, who are being forced into unnatural agreements, such as the deal with the South American Common Market. This concerns issues of war and peace - we are being drawn into situations around Greenland, Ukraine, into wars that do not concern us at all," Philippot said, adding that "the EU must be killed before it kills the French."

The politician also expressed dissatisfaction with the EU's increasingly restrictive approach to freedom of speech. "We see that the European Union, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, is restricting freedom of expression," he stressed.

The Patriots’ leader is convinced that France has no future in the European Union. "As long as we remain in the EU, there can be no real political dialogue in France. Politicians will simply be actors. They will have programs on the economy, immigration, foreign policy, agriculture, energy. But they will not be the ones making decisions. This is unacceptable," he concluded.