"Global security" law: demonstrations throughout France, clashes in Paris
Violence enamelled the Parisian demonstration, this December 5, 2020. AFP - ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
Scenes of vandalism and violence, punctuated by arrests, punctuated the demonstration against the "global security" law this Saturday afternoon in Paris, while many other gatherings were held in France "for social rights and freedom ".
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In total, nearly 90 rallies were announced by the organizers in France this Saturday.
Initially planned as a union rally against precariousness, traditionally organized by the CGT on the first Saturday in December, the day saw the aggregation of the protest against police violence and the proposed “global security” law.
In the Parisian procession, the slogan was “
convergence of struggles
”, report our special envoys
Lucie Bouteloup
and
Bertrand Eclair
.
A convergence of struggles against pension reform, against laws deemed to be liberticidal, against the expulsion of undocumented migrants and even for more visibility of transgender people, lesbians and homosexuals.
“
It is important to fight for freedom, for freedom of the press, our daily freedoms, but also against police violence, state violence.
Because since Macron came to power, there have been plenty of repressions, all of this is unbearable,
”said Jean-Baptiste, a protester, at the microphone of RFI.
But the exchanges were considerably strained between the police and the demonstrators halfway through the route of the Paris demonstration.
Arrests in the Parisian procession
At 4 p.m., the procession was immobilized and the police began to block the streets perpendicular to Avenue Gambetta, in the XXth arrondissement.
The police fired many tear gas at the crowd.
Several windows, including those of a supermarket, a real estate agency and a bank, were also damaged by thugs on this avenue, in front of the procession that left Porte des Lilas in the direction of Place de the Republic.
Boris, 34, however regrets the reaction of the police: “
There is a disproportionate response from the police.
We are demonstrating and on the side of the procession, there is the Brav
[Motorized Violent Action Repression Brigade, note]
, the cops are very intimidating.
Me, I do not want to demonstrate under these conditions, and yet I am someone determined, I have been demonstrating for years.
We no longer have the right to demonstrate in this country.
And there, the demonstration is screwed up.
"
According to a latest report from the prefecture, 30 people were arrested in Paris.
The Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin for his part greeted, on Twitter, the "
police forces mobilized today, sometimes in the face of very violent individuals
".
Gatherings were also held in Toulouse, in southwestern France, Montpellier, in the south, Rennes, Brittany, and Strasbourg, in the east.
Some towns feared further violent outbursts.
In Bordeaux and Montpellier, the prefects had banned any procession in the hypercentre.
In Lyon, the demonstration was only authorized on the left bank of the Rhône.
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