Paris (AFP)

New demonstrations are planned for Saturday in France against the "global security" law and its flagship measure, which plans to restrict the possibility of filming the police, while opposition to the text is now exacerbated by a series of cases of police violence.

Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Strasbourg, Marseille, Grenoble, Clermont-Ferrand, Caen ... Multiple gatherings are planned all over France, against this text deemed to infringe "freedom of expression" and "l 'Rule of law' by its opponents.

Last Saturday, the mobilization gathered around 22,000 people across the country, according to the authorities.

Since then, the controversy surrounding this text, strongly denounced by journalists and defenders of public freedoms, has grown even stronger.

The brutal evacuation of a migrant camp in Paris on Monday evening and the revelation on Thursday of the beating of a black music producer by four police officers sparked indignation and electrified the debate.

Scenes filmed and viewed millions of times on social networks.

In this tense context, Emmanuel Macron descended on Friday in the arena to denounce the "unacceptable aggression" of producer Michel Zecler and "images that make us ashamed".

He again asked the government to quickly make proposals "to fight more effectively against all forms of discrimination".

- Coaster pedaling -

What would happen if the police could no longer be filmed, question the detractors of the "global security" law, who fear the scope of its article 24, penalizing those who would like to film the police with malicious intent.

After modifying the text to include guarantees on the "right to inform", the government spent the week trying to clear the matter.

In vain: despite its adoption at first reading by the National Assembly, the controversy was such that Matignon resolved to announce a new rewriting of the text by an independent "commission".

Before backpedaling in the face of the ire of parliamentarians and the majority, to whom Jean Castex had to assure that they would have the last word.

Under pressure, the executive will assess Saturday to what extent this law can unite against him.

In Paris, the head of the protest, two demonstrations were declared to protest against this text, which also provides for the possible use of drones during demonstrations.

- Fear of a "drama" -

A "march of freedoms" planned between the Place de la République and that of the Bastille should begin around 2:00 p.m., at the call of the collective "Stop! Global Security Law", which brings together journalists' unions, NGOs, the association of the judicial press, the League of Human Rights (LDH) and other associations.

The police headquarters had initially banned it and wanted a static rally in République, in order to "avoid the mixing of populations" to fight against the Covid-19 epidemic.

A decision finally overturned by the administrative court of Paris.

A gathering of "yellow vests" is also planned at the Place du Trocadéro.

Thousands of demonstrators are expected in the capital.

On social networks, the Adama committee, which had succeeded in mobilizing more than 20,000 people in June against the police violence, called for the rally.

A hundred elected officials from the Paris region announced their presence at Place de la République, in tricolor sashes, and their desire to be "vigilant" in the face of possible slippages by the police.

In this electric context, the authorities fear violence.

"Almost no demonstration is going well," lamented Friday David Le Bars, general secretary of the Union of National Police Commissioners.

According to him, "we risk the tragedy with each intervention", when violence is committed at the end of the gathering.

"We are coming to the end, the social and economic crises, that can be resolved politically, not with the maintenance of order," he said.

© 2020 AFP