At a press conference, the interior minister called "in this period of violence (...) solemnly each and every one in peace" and evoked the possible presence in Paris on Tuesday of "more than 1,000 radical elements, including some from abroad, and others (who) were present at Sainte-Soline this weekend".
Mr. Darmanin added that these people "from the ultra-left and the extreme left" could also "carry out actions in Lyon, Rennes, Nantes, Dijon and Bordeaux", cities where the demonstrations were punctuated last Thursday by many violence.
These people "are trying to take the union processions hostage," he lamented. "They come to break, to kill policemen and gendarmes (...) to destabilize institutions and put the France on fire and blood."
During the previous day of inter-union mobilization last Thursday, 12,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized, including 5,000 in Paris.
Mr. Darmanin drew up an assessment of the demonstrations against the pension reform since March 16: "114 acts of vandalism against offices, 128 against public buildings, 2,179 arson, 891 police and gendarmes injured".
In Saintes-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) where the unauthorized demonstration against water reservoirs gave rise Saturday to violent clashes with the gendarmes, the minister said that there had been counted "200 people known to the services, including many S files among the thousand radicals" present.
He said he had "a thought for the two men (of the demonstrators) who have their prognosis engaged" seriously injured. He recalled that 47 gendarmes had also been wounded Saturday in the Deux-Sèvres.
© 2023 AFP