Paris (AFP)
In all the major cities of France, thousands of demonstrators are again expected on Saturday against racism and police violence, against a backdrop of anger among the police and on the eve of an address by President Emmanuel Macron.
Thousands of people gathered in Paris at the beginning of the afternoon on the Place de la République began to parade shortly before 3 p.m. in the direction of the Place l'Opéra, at the call of the committee Adama Traoré, a young black man who died in July 2016 after his arrest by gendarmes in the Paris region.
Assa Traoré, the young man's sister and committee figure, called to march to "denounce the denial of justice, to denounce social, racial, police violence", again demanding the indictment of the gendarmes implicated in the arrest of his brother.
"The death of George Floyd - this African-American killed on May 25 in Minneapolis by a white police officer - directly echoed the death of my brother. It is the same thing in France, our brothers die (...)" , she said, promising to "continue the fight" for justice.
Binta Kamara, 18, came "to support the blacks, the minorities, so that we are united. I am young and the future is us. We have to change things". Elisa, a 27-year-old student, is also there to "keep up the pressure", refuses the "anti-police speech" but considers "obvious that there is a problem of racism and fear of the police today".
On June 2, the Adama committee succeeded in mobilizing 20,000 people before the Paris court, and established itself as the spearhead in the fight against police violence. His discourse has broadened, from the denunciation of police violence to that of "systemic racism", finding a powerful echo after the death of George Floyd, which sparked a worldwide wave of indignation.
On Saturday, the actresses Adèle Haenel and Aïssa Maïga will take part in the walk, as will the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon. When he got to Place de la République, the latter called on the police to "change his behavior". "If we let instill the idea that because of their skin color or their religion some can be treated in an unworthy way, then it is no longer France".
Shortly before the start of the march, a handful of identity activists deployed, from the top of a building, a red and white banner bearing the inscription: "Justice for the victims of anti-white racism".
Other parades are planned for Saturday, notably in Marseille, Lyon, Montpellier, Nantes, Saint-Nazaire, in Bordeaux (with "yellow vests") as well as in Strasbourg on Sunday.
- "Contact broken" -
"We must not lose youth," worried Thursday the head of state, whose address on Sunday evening will be scrutinized as much by anti-racist activists as exhausted police, disgusted with being "thrown into the pasture" by their minister, Christophe Castaner.
Racism is "a disease that affects all of society", said Wednesday in the Council of Ministers Emmanuel Macron, while defending the police "whose overwhelming majority can not be soiled".
On Saturday, government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye suggested in a forum in the World to reopen "in a calm and constructive way the debate around ethnic statistics" and "to forcefully return to the tools to combat racial discrimination".
The tone is calming after a difficult week for the executive. Pressed to act, the Minister of the Interior had announced police sanctions for "proven suspicion" of racism, before admitting an error.
In a statement Friday evening, however, he confirmed the removal of the so-called "strangulation" technique, which will no longer be taught.
Referring to a letter sent by the minister to the police, Frédéric Lagache, of the Alliance union, says that this will not be enough to appease the anger of police officers "injured and touched in their honor" and who are waiting "to be received" by Mr. Macron. "The ball is now in the president's court," he said.
Jean-Paul Mégret, the secretary general of the independent union of police commissioners, believes in Le Parisien that "contact" with Christophe Castaner "is largely broken".
Saturday morning, in Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines), where there was a tribute to the couple of police officers killed by a jihadist in Magnanville in 2016, Christophe Castaner was greeted in an icy atmosphere by dozens of police officers, who had piled up at handcuffs and armbands. He left without making a speech.
© 2020 AFP