Paris (AFP)

An unprecedented mobilization for nearly 20 years: at the call of a large inter-union, the police will beat the pavement Wednesday in Paris for a "march of anger" against the backdrop of unease of the institution, rising suicides and pension reform.

The procession will depart at 12:30 from the Place de la Bastille to join that of the Republic. The trade union organizations that have achieved the sacred union of all bodies and all ranks, hope for an exceptional mobilization of 15,000 to 20,000 demonstrators.

In memory of police unionists, we had not seen such a unitary call since 2001. At the time, the mobilization had been caused by the murder of two policemen in Plessis-Treviso (Val-de-Marne) by a repeat offender .

This time, no bloody events acting as a trigger, but an operational wear related to the social movement of "yellow vests", where the police were accused of violence, and a surge of suicides in the National Police, an evil endemic in the institution.

Five points are at the heart of the demands of the police: "the improvement of the quality of life at work", "a real social policy for the agents of the Ministry of the Interior", "a real criminal response, effective and dissuasive "," the defense of pensions "and a future law of orientation and programming" ambitious ".

"There is a deep fuss," said David Le Bars, Secretary General of the Union of Commissioners of the National Police (SCPN-Unsa). "All the unions are aware that the police are sick."

"We are beyond the means.A budget envelope or the future Loppsi (law and orientation for the performance of homeland security) will not solve everything," says the unionist, who also puts forward the "context fears "about pension and civil service reforms.

The future big bang of pension plans is indeed one of the main points of tension between the executive and police unions, who fear a challenge to their advantageous system of bonuses.

- "Upgrading" -

The police benefit from a special bonus called "the fifth" or "five-year", which offers them an annuity (four quarters) of contribution every five years. It is capped at five years. To be eligible for this bonus, the employee must have exercised 27 years.

The words of Interior Minister Christophe Castaner assuring, September 17, that he would defend "until the end the specificity of the status" of the police, are far from having dissipated the concerns of trade union organizations.

"We want a firm and definitive position of the government", summarizes the Secretary General of Unit-SG-FO, Yves Lefebvre.

"Castaner does not have all the cards in hand, he plays a game of poker with Matignon who holds the purse strings and the Elysée," says Lefebvre. "But everyone must understand that there will be fire in the house + police +" if the government was to follow the recommendations of the report of the High Commissioner for pension reform Jean-Paul Delevoye, published in July.

Faced with this new rumbling of the police world, the Ministry of the Interior highlights the measures undertaken since the arrival of the duo Castaner / Nuñez in October 2018.

"It is not at all to deny the difficulties that the police can face.For a year, we know that they were put to the test," says the entourage of Christophe Castaner.

"There is a very important work of upgrading and we are leading the finance bill after the finance bill," the source added.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, whose budget will increase by 4% in 2020, an additional 552 million euros have been allocated to security force staff since the 2018 budget.

Beauvau also argues the "strong mobilization" on suicides such as the activism of ministers to defend the police against "permanent criticism".

Will the reminder of these measures be enough to appease the "anger" of the police? "We are already in the after-2 October," warns Mr. Lefebvre.

© 2019 AFP