Paris (AFP)

Descent of the Champs Elysées, handcuffs thrown to the ground ...: the anger of the police officers did not weaken Friday against Christophe Castaner, to the point that now their unions ask to be received by the Head of State.

Angry police, other presidents or interior ministers have faced them in the past. But this new episode comes in a climate of mistrust vis-à-vis the executive, rumors of reshuffle and a long sequence of demonstrations and solicitations of the police, from "yellow vests" to containment control in going through the movement against pension reform.

It also occurs the day before new demonstrations against police violence and racism and 48 hours before an address by President Emmanuel Macron.

Twenty cars branded with police unions had descended the Champs-Elysées to Place Beauvau, in front of the Minister of the Interior, behind a banner displaying "no police, no peace".

Almost everywhere in France, since Thursday, the police have organized various and symbolic actions, such as throwing their handcuffs on the ground, to proclaim their rage and their request for support from the executive.

- Calls for resignation -

For Patrice Ribeiro of the Synergie union, we "conspire the police". "Why? Because at the highest level of the state we are afraid of an active minority (...), we would like politicians, foremost among whom the President of the Republic, to support us, must receive us, "he said.

The death in the United States of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer revived in France the accusations of police violence and racism. Accusations forcefully relayed by the Adama Traoré committee of the name of a young black man who died in July 2016 during an arrest by gendarmes in the Paris region.

While several heads of state and government, like the German Angela Merkel or the Canadian Justin Trudeau, condemned the death of George Floyd, Emmanuel Macron remained silent publicly.

The success of the demonstration at the call of the Traore committee, which gathered 20,000 people on June 2 in Paris, surprised and struck the executive. So much so that President Macron asked Christophe Castaner to act and to reinforce the rules of ethics of the police.

Thus on Monday the Minister advocated "zero tolerance" towards racism in the ranks of the police and the prohibition of a technique of arrest without the implementation of another method. This sparked the anger of the police.

Since then, Edouard Philippe has stepped up to the plate to testify to the Senate on Wednesday of his confidence in the police. The Keeper of the Seals, Nicole Belloubet, for her part, estimated that the police were "a mood swell that will subside".

The president of MoDem, François Bayrou, went to him in the morning at a police station in his city of Pau to denounce "the indictment of the security forces".

But, in the opposition on the right as on the left, calls for the resignation of Christophe Castaner poured in. "A weak minister who must resign (Alexis Corbière, LFI);" total rupture "between the minister and the police (Eric Ciotti, LR).

Marine le Pen (RN) castigated the "recurrent abandonment" of the police and the establishment of "a presumption of guilt" for the police.

In the entourage of the minister, it was pointed out that the unions never called for his resignation.

During his meetings Thursday with the unions, Christophe Castaner explained, according to his entourage, that "zero tolerance" did not mean that all the police and all the gendarmes are racist.

In the afternoon, the Minister is to receive the unions of officers and commissioners.

© 2020 AFP