Paris (France) (AFP)
Government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye called for "appeasement" Wednesday, the day after a banned rally in Paris called by the family support committee for 24-year-old Adama Traore's family died in 2016 after his arrest.
Eighteen people were arrested during incidents on the sidelines of this demonstration which took place in the context of those organized in the United States and in other countries after the death of George Floyd, a black American of 46 years old suffocated by a white police officer in the United States on May 25.
The death of Adama Traoré was "a drama" which arouses "a legitimate emotion still very present in our country", declared Mrs. Ndiaye after the Council of Ministers.
Tuesday night's demonstration, which gathered 20,000 people, "had not been banned for its purpose but for health reasons" linked to the coronavirus epidemic, said the spokeswoman.
It was not the subject of a discussion in the Council of Ministers, she said, recalling that a judicial investigation was underway.
"We trust the justice system to make all the clarifications and, if necessary, a trial, if any, on this case," she said.
"This demonstration, although prohibited, took place for most of the time in calm. At the end of the demonstration there were events which are obviously condemnable and quite regrettable, the police are intervened with measure, "she said.
"There is no state violence instituted in our country. When there are incidents, when there are faults which are committed by members of the police, there are investigations and the if necessary sanctions when faults are proven, "she added.
Between France and the United States, the situations "are not entirely comparable, neither in terms of history nor in the organization of society. I call to approach these subjects with enormous caution", she concluded.
The right condemned the Paris demonstration on Wednesday. "Such a demonstration, in full state of emergency, is to flout the law", denounced the president LR of the Senate Gérard Larcher on RTL.
Conversely, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of LFI, judged the images of the gatherings "impressive of calm and quiet determination", taking the defense of "this youth humiliated by the incessant controls, the permanent injustice and ostentatiously unpunished police violence. "
The deputy RN Bruno Bilde, in a written question to the Minister of the Interior, judged the demonstration "violent" and denounced "the desertion of the republican State", estimating that "nothing was done by the services of the ministry of the Interior to prevent the holding of this racialist raid ".
The RN candidate for mayor of Nice Philippe Vardon asked him in a press release "the prohibition" of the "communitarian and anti-police" demonstrations planned this weekend in the city.
© 2020 AFP