The protest grows against the proposed law “global security”. The mobilization in the street was very strong this Saturday in Paris and in a hundred cities throughout France. In Paris, many demonstrators met believed that the risks of attacks on freedoms carried by this law are greater than their fears of being contaminated by Covid-19 while marching.
“I would never have thought of demonstrating during confinement but I have the feeling that the government is using the health crisis to pass a villainous and liberticidal law behind our backs. Under cover of saying that he is neither on the right nor on the left, Emmanuel Macron wants to impose a far-right law on us, “denounces Armeline, a 28-year-old student who sees her participation in the Parisian procession as a sort of deconfinement of anger.
–
Clashes at the end of the demonstration
In Paris, more than 46,000 people marched between Place de la République and Bastille, according to the police headquarters and more than 133,000 throughout France according to figures from the Ministry of the Interior (against 500,000 according to the organizers ).
Pointed out by the demonstrators, the police had been quite discreet at the beginning of the parade but clashes at the end of the demonstration opposed groups of black blocs to the police who responded to the throwing of projectiles by firing from tear gas.
–
A newspaper kiosk, the entrance to a building of the Bank of France and a brewery were notably set on fire, as were cars. The prefecture announced 46 arrests, while the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin advanced in the early evening a provisional assessment of 37 police officers and gendarmes injured throughout France.
–
France had not seen such scenes of violence or such large demonstrations since the start of the Covid-19 crisis and the rallies against the pension reform last winter. Such a significant mobilization on the issue of relations between the population and the police has been unprecedented for several years.
–
The law widens the gap between police and citizens
–
Many demonstrators decided to take to the streets after being very shocked by the images of police violence broadcast in recent days on social networks. The beating of a black producer by police officers and the brutal evacuation of 450 migrants in the middle of Paris have heightened fears linked to article 24 of the law, which provides for restricting the possibility of filming the forces of the order.
“This law suggests that the police have things to hide. It further widens the gap between citizens and the police. Some police officers are racist. We must not deny it”, denounces Nicole, a high school student from 17 years of Val-de-Marne who is demonstrating for the first time.
–
The feeling of a scorned democracy
–
The concerns in the Parisian procession are not limited to the law and its article 24. “Democracy is in danger”, warns the sign brandished by Florence, a 62-year-old resident of Hauts-de-Seine. “From now on, everything is decided in the defense council and the deputies are at the boot of the government. I have the feeling of a scorned democracy. We need more than ever checks and balances”, explains the sexagenarian who was scandalized by the images of migrants driven from the Place de la République last Monday. “The police are not well trained to do their job. The problem is that they are called law enforcement agencies when we should be talking about peacekeepers.”
–
A kind of dictatorship that does not say its name
–
Marc and Antoinette, both 63 years old, voted Macron in 2017. The two young retirees from Seine-et-Marne are among the disappointed with macronism. They worry about a drift. “The authoritarian shift in power scares us. After his hold-up on the left, Emmanuel Macron turned to the right embodied by his Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. If the law passes, we will enter a kind of of a dictatorship that does not say its name “. A banner sums up their fears: “We did not vote against Le Pen so that his ideas rule”.
–
A hundred left-wing elected officials participated in the Parisian demonstration on Saturday. “This mobilization is the sign of a popular uprising against an increasingly authoritarian climate. Emmanuel Macron shows his true face. His neoliberal line is now the morning of increased surveillance and social control. We are in a political crisis. major which can end in crisis of regime “, estimates Clémentine Autain, deputy La France insoumise of Seine-Saint-Denis.
–
