Protests against police violence in France: the embarrassment of the executive

President Emmanuel Macron, here at the foot of the statue of General de Gaulle on the Champs-Elysées, May 8, 2020. Francois Mori / POOL / AFP

Text by: Véronique Rigolet Follow

The shock wave caused by the death of George Floyd in the United States continued to spread this weekend in France where more than 23,000 demonstrators on Saturday denounced the police violence and demanded "justice for all". Demonstrations followed very closely by the Elysee Palace, even if President Macron and Prime Minister Philippe remained discreet all weekend, a silence that reflects the embarrassment of the executive.

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No intervention, no press release not even a tweet, a "deafening" silence according to the right, in which in any case noisily engulfed the oppositions. "  For someone who has a say on everything and anything, there on a major subject the president would have nothing to say?  »Asked the ecologist Julien Bayou.

"  It would be better for him to speak  " on alleged racism in the police rather than "  to sell cars  " by going to Renault, attacked for his part the head of rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while the boss of Republicans Christian Jacob asked him to support the police: "  I admit that I do not understand why a President of the Republic can be silent. We saw Jacques Chirac leave a football stadium when La Marseillaise was whistled; there, our police humiliated, insulted, not a word from the president, not a word from the Prime Minister.  "

A presidential silence which translates all the embarrassment of the executive, on a crest line explains a deputy of the majority "  between the necessary listening of the youth who demonstrates and the support that he could not deny the police while condemning individual violence  ”.

Not easy, but "  the president should not take too long to speak,  " said a minister for his part in one who said he feared "  a possibly flammable situation  ".

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  • France
  • Emmanuel Macron

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