Paris (AFP)
New demonstrations are organized on Saturday in Paris and throughout France against racism and police violence, against a backdrop of anger among the police who say they are "thrown into the blue" by the Minister of the Interior.
The biggest parade, expected Saturday in Paris from Place de la République to Opera, is organized at 2:30 p.m. at the call of the committee Adama Traoré, young black man who died in July 2016 after his arrest by gendarmes in the Paris region.
To ward off possible overflows, the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, asked for the closure of shops, drinking places and restaurants located on the course.
Other parades are expected, notably in Marseille, departing from the Old Port, in Lyon place Bellecour, in Montpellier place de la Comédie, in Nantes place du Bouffay and in Saint-Nazaire, as well as in Strasbourg on Sunday.
Since then, thousands of people have taken to the streets to denounce police violence and racism in France.
On Tuesday, at the call of SOS Racisme, a tribute was paid in Paris to George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American killed on May 25 in Minneapolis by a white police officer. His death became a symbol of police violence and aroused unprecedented worldwide outrage.
In France, faced with a mobilization that has spread, from Paris to several large provincial towns, the executive tried at the start of the week to calm tensions.
- "It will end badly" -
Racism is "a disease that affects the whole of society", said Wednesday in the Council of Ministers Emmanuel Macron, while defending the police "whose overwhelming majority cannot be soiled".
The Head of State, expected on this subject Sunday during his address to the French, also "called for the modernization of the techniques of arrest and intervention when we know a context of strong tensions".
In a Wednesday visit to a police station in Evry (Essonne), Prime Minister Edouard Philippe also tried to put down the controversy. "We owe them respect and trust", as does "the vast majority of French people", but "we also have a duty to demand from them", he declared.
At the request of Emmanuel Macron, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner announced Monday measures to improve the ethics of the police and in particular the end of the so-called "strangulation" method of arrest and the systematic suspension in the event of racist behavior or remarks.
Announcements that strongly reacted to the peacekeepers' unions, received Thursday in Beauvau. "He let go of us, threw us into the pasture on Monday. It was up to him to regain Everest's confidence", thundered in particular Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-FO Unit, calling on his colleagues "to stop questioning, to stop intervening ".
In the aftermath, Thursday evening, police gathered in front of police stations all over France, and notably put their handcuffs on the ground. In addition, several dozen police demonstrated on Friday morning on the Champs-Elysées, at the request of the unions Alliance, synergie, SICP and UNSA.
"Who is the leader?" Wonders Youcef Brakni, member of the Adama Committee. The Interior Ministry is run by the police unions, it's political blackmail, it's going to end badly ".
© 2020 AFP