Bayonne (AFP)
A new demonstration, the third in two days, gathered Sunday morning in Bayonne a few hundred protesters anti-G7, this time "for the climate and social justice", holding portraits of President Macron unhooked for months in town halls.
Under the slogan "Climate and social justice: Macron picks up, let's take it!", This "march of portraits", is organized by the alternative movements and ecologists ANV COP 21, Alternatiba and Bizi, these last two of Basque origin. She wants to be "100% non-violent and open-faced", according to the organizers.
In the narrow streets of the center of Bayonne, activists wandered, waving head-down portraits of the head of state, chanting "we're hotter than the climate" or "and one, and two, and three degrees, it is a crime against humanity ".
"We wear it upside down to signify the lack of meaning of its policy," said Mathieu, a Bizi activist.
Many also carry packets that seem to pack a presidential portrait, on which is written in French, English, Spanish or Basque "Climate, social justice, where is Macron?".
"To get a portrait is civil disobedience, it's considered a robbery in a meeting," says Abram, carrying his portrait above his head.
The day of Saturday, opening of the G7, was marked by two demonstrations of opponents at the summit: the largest, which gathered 15,000 people according to the organizers (9,000 according to the police), marched from Hendaye to Irun, on the border Spanish, calm and without incident. At the end of the day in Bayonne, a demonstration, unauthorized this one, gave rise to brief clashes between police and demonstrators, with shots of water cannons and tear gas, but without major overflows, without injuries or damage to the shops.
During the day, 68 people were arrested, 38 of which were held in police custody, according to the prefecture, without specifying the place or context of the arrests. They concerned acts of "participation in a conspiracy to commit violence or degrading, possession of objects that could be used as a weapon by destination, concealment of the face and projectiles".
Friday morning again, on the eve of the G7, a portrait of the head of state was stalled in the town hall of a small village in the Basque country, Irissary, a small town of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. A "snub" to the impressive security device deployed on the region for the G7, with 13,200 policemen, according to Alternatiba, Bizi and ANV COP21.
This portrait, according to these associations, was the 128th won by activists in various town halls in France since February, in line with the "actions of civil non-violent disobedience" claimed by these associations. These actions led to the detention of 93 activists and 57 convocations of activists, according to the same source.
© 2019 AFP