LThe director of the Guadeloupe CHU and his two assistants had to be exfiltrated by the police from their offices besieged Tuesday by activists against the vaccination obligation of caregivers, told AFP the management of the hospital.
The administrative building of the CHU of Guadeloupe, the scene of tensions around the issue of the compulsory vaccination of caregivers, was besieged on Tuesday and the management “sequestered” in its offices before being finally “exfiltrated” by the police, explained to AFP the director general of the CHU, Gérard Cotellon.
“I was extracted with a punch in the ribs and a huge blow to the head, I lost consciousness for 10 seconds I think,” Cotellon said.
His deputy, Cédric Zolezzi, also said he was molested. “I was torn off my shirt, I got urine on me while I was running towards a police car,” he said, saying he was “shocked”. Management has announced its intention to file a complaint.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal expressed Wednesday at the end of the Council of Ministers “all (his) solidarity” with the director of the CHU, who was “beaten, kidnapped by anti-ax activists”.
“It is shameful, it is revolting, it is scandalous, and it is inadmissible in the Republic”, added the representative of the government, recalling that the caregivers “did not count neither their hours nor their nights” to fight the Covid epidemic, which led the government to declare a state of health emergency on Wednesday in several overseas territories, including Guadeloupe.
If this exfiltration did not give rise to arrests, it was like a “rugby scrum”, according to a police source, while the demonstrators were “rather calm” throughout the day.
“We have come to claim the money we are owed,” Gaby Clavier, former secretary of the health branch of the UGTG union, who was present at the scene with the demonstrators told AFP. The latter demand the payment of the salaries of the suspended agents, following their refusal to comply with the vaccination obligation.
The demonstrators left the scene in the early evening. This is not the first time that these administrative premises have been targeted as part of this mobilization. At the end of 2021, several degradations had already taken place.
According to the CHU, which is preparing for an influx of patients due to the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic, 95% of staff “meet the vaccine obligation”.
The director general of the ARS, Valérie Denux, strongly condemned this “aggression” on Wednesday morning on social networks, urging a return to “calm” and estimating that “those who do not want to be vaccinated must turn the tables page of their professional practice in health “.
Ary Chalus, president of the Guadeloupe region, also denounced “exactions”, recalling with all the regional elected officials “that individual freedoms are always accompanied by individual responsibilities towards others”.
President Emmanuel Macron, interviewed by the daily Le Parisien, triggered the controversy on Tuesday by declaring that he “really wants to piss off” the unvaccinated.
05/01/2022 14:21:09 – Pointe-à-Pitre (AFP) – © 2022 AFP
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