Cannes Film Festival: the prefecture banned from demonstrating, the CGT promises to "make its cinema"

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: PASCAL GUYOT / AFP 16:54 pm, May 13, 2023

As "in previous years", the prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes has issued a decree prohibiting any event in Cannes, around the Croisette, during the film festival. A measure that did not prevent the CGT from announcing that it was going to "make its cinema". This ban covers the duration of the 76th edition of the festival, from Tuesday to Sunday, May 28, and concerns a well-defined perimeter encompassing the surroundings of the Palais des Festivals, the Croisette and the streets adjacent to it, says this order taken Thursday. "This order is identical to that of previous years," the prefecture told AFP.

"Surprise actions"

Despite these restrictions, the CGT has already planned various actions, as part of its opposition to the pension reform, behind a clear slogan: "The CGT makes its cinema in Cannes". Thus, Friday, May 19 from 13:00 pm to 15:00 pm, it intends to bring together employees of the hotel sector for a fixed gathering, on the forecourt of the Carlton, a private place excluded from the ban taken by the prefecture.

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Two days later, Sunday, May 21, at 11:00, a declared demonstration, at the call of an inter-union gathering CGT, Solidaires, FSU and Unsa, will be held on the boulevard Carnot, outside the forbidden perimeter. This demonstration will target the reform of pensions but also that of unemployment insurance and its consequences on intermittent entertainment workers and seasonal workers, said a local official of the CGT, without excluding "surprise actions" during the festival.

An "invitational" screening

On the same Sunday, May 21, at 22:00, the CGT announced the screening "by invitation", at the Palais des Festivals, of the documentary "Amor, Mujeres y Flores", a 1989 film about these Colombian workers victims of pesticides in the flower industry. At the end of this film, broadcast at the initiative of the SPIAC-CGT union and the collectives 50/50 and Women on Camera, there will be a debate on "the place of women in the world of work and the credits of films in particular".

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On April 21, as part of their announcement of "100 days of action and anger", in the face of the 100 days of action promised by the head of state Emmanuel Macron "in the service of the France", the unions of the CGT Energy had notably evoked "energy disturbances", targeting in particular the Cannes festival. "In May, do as you please! The Cannes Film Festival, the Monaco Grand Prix, the Roland-Garros tournament, the Avignon Festival could find themselves in the dark! We will not give up!" he explained.