A CRS vehicle in Nantes, June 13, 2020. (illustration) - Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / SIPA

  • Tuesday, June 16, the national mobilization of the medical personnel gave place to rallies in several cities.
  • If clashes took place in Paris, in Nîmes, an unprecedented form of convergence between a Republican Security Company (CRS) and demonstrators would have occurred, according to images very relayed on social networks.
  • Several witnesses present at the demonstration confirm to 20 Minutes that they attended this moment of "communion" to which the main union of peacekeepers had called.

Two cities, two atmospheres. Tuesday, June 16, during the national day of mobilization of caregivers to demand more resources for the public hospital, while the rally organized in Paris gave rise to strong tensions between demonstrators and police, the atmosphere was obviously very different in Nîmes (Gard), according to a viral video.

A sequence taken up by multiple users of Twitter or Facebook - including Linda Kebbab, national delegate of the Union SGP Police-FO union, and several Internet users claiming their support for the police - indeed shows a cordon of forces of the order warmly applaud the caregivers gathered in front of them.

Some even drop their blouses in front of the CRS helmets placed on the ground, as if to better illustrate this convergence, while the crowd continues to applaud and ends up singing "All together, all together!" "

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The first occurrence of the video we were able to find comes from a Facebook user who posted it on Tuesday around 5 p.m., almost forty minutes before it was picked up by many Internet users showing their support for the forces of order. "Make up your own mind. We are not all sold out as traitors to racists. We are just men. We are fathers and mothers. Total support for nursing staff. Proud to be CRS, "he said in legend - contacted by 20 Minutes , he had not responded to our requests before the article appeared.

The places visible on the video are well located in Nîmes, more precisely in front of the prefecture of the city, as we can check on Google Street View. Members of the Republican Security Company (CRS) are posted in front of rue Raymond Marc, a stone's throw from avenue Feuchères.

The prefecture of Nîmes on Google Street View. - screenshot / Google Street View

And the security forces mobilized in front of the building did indeed show their support for the nursing staff on Tuesday, June 16 during the local mobilization, as confirmed at 20 Minutes Sylvia Da Costa, assistant general secretary of the CFDT Health Union of Gard, and union manager of the CFDT section at CHU Carré mots in Nîmes.

"Mutual support from two trades who are there to save lives"

“At the start, we were not supposed to walk to the prefecture, but we ended up going there to give our demands to the prefect. The CRS which was stationed there started to applaud and put down their helmets, it was a beautiful gesture, which gave us chills, so we wanted to join them to show our support. Faced with their helmets, we had no other option than to put our work tools on the ground, which are gowns and masks, ”she explains.

"We went to them and we applauded them, it lasted for many minutes. We told them we were with them, that we supported them. It was a mutual support of two trades who are there to save lives and who risk theirs at any time, it was a beautiful rapprochement, quite unprecedented, especially given the current context of tensions, "concludes Sylvia Da Costa , about this gathering.

Nathalie Argenson, secretary of the CGT union at the CHU Nîmes hospital, also present at the time, abounds: “It happened when we arrived in front of the prefecture […]. Caregivers who were very thirsty came to go to a brewery. It was when they went downstairs in the brewery, in a street perpendicular to the prefecture, that the police started the [sirens] and began to applaud. "

“We found ourselves facing CRS who put their helmets on the ground in front of the nursing staff. We even noticed a chef who did not seem to agree with what they were doing, I think they somehow disobeyed the instructions given to them, because they withdrew and continued to applaud. We felt that there was respect for the first of the rope […], they were two professional bodies of civil servants at the service of users and there was a need for this moment of communion in this period of Covid crisis ", She concludes.

The demonstration brought together around 2,000 people according to La Dépêche du Midi , who mentioned the scene in an article: “These latter [the police] applauded the caregivers who responded in a friendly manner while their smocks and helmets were been placed on the ground, just to signify that social protest is present in different trades. A similar scene of applause was also observed in Lille the same day, as reported by our journalist Mickaël Libert.

#Policiers applaud the procession of #careers at #Lille pic.twitter.com/yYDwbhPReb

- Mikael Libert (@MikaelLibert) June 16, 2020

Contacted by 20 Minutes , the Information and Communication Service of the National Police (Sicop) simply said: "It was spontaneous, the images are enough for themselves. "However, the union SGP police-FO unit had called for such an action in a message addressed to its executives and transmitted to several journalists:" This afternoon demonstrations of nursing staff will take place throughout France. Symbolically and in continuity with the support displayed since the beginning of the health crisis, we ask you to relay, without delay, the call of SGP Police Unit to have the demonstrators applauded by our colleagues employed on the [maintenance of the 'order], writes Yves Lefebvre. The rapprochement with the population and our desire to make another form of unionism requires such symbolism! "

Health

VIDEO. Demonstration for the hospital: "You have to make it feel that there is a whole people, the one who cheered every night, behind these discontented caregivers"

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