Anti-police slogans emerged all over France this Thursday evening. At the call of the “Earth Uprisings” movement, nearly 90 rallies were to be organized in the country’s major cities, in front of the prefectures and town halls. If several prefects (Doubs, Finistère, Bas-Rhin, Rhône, Haute-Saône, Côte-d’Or and Tarn) had taken, during the day, prefectural orders against these mobilizations, many rallies took place in many many cities.
Toulouse, Rennes, Paris, Niort, Marseille, Bordeaux, Amiens, Angoulême, Strasbourg and Nantes have seen hundreds, some thousands, of people come together. In the capital, a large crowd also occupied the place of the Town Hall (IVe), members of the Attac association, were present. Some chanted slogans heard a lot in recent weeks in the processions of demonstrations against the pension reform, like this: “Louis XVI, we beheaded him. Macron, we can start again. “We are here to protest against police violence and in support of Serge, injured this weekend in Sainte-Soline and who is still in a coma,” said Nicolas, 43, a civil servant.
The gathering of 4,500 people according to the police headquarters, turned in the evening into wild demonstrations in small groups in the heart of the capital. Seven arrests took place in these wild processions, according to a report from a police source at 10:30 p.m.
The end of the rally saw a group of several hundred break away and head towards Châtelet. Barricades were reportedly erected and fires started. In Lyon, the police would have used tear gas. A few garbage fires were also observed in Montpellier.
In Strarbourg, the prefecture had earlier in the afternoon recommended to the national theater to close its doors at 6 p.m. and for the first time to cancel two performances, reports France Blue. The National University Library also closed at 6 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. These rallies, scheduled for 7 p.m., aimed to support the injured – one of whom still has his vital prognosis – after the clashes with the police during the prohibited demonstration against the megabasins, and to denounce the police violence. .
20,000 people expected throughout France
Gérald Darmanin had announced to expect demonstrations bringing together “16,000 to 20,000 people for 80 actions”, outside Paris, according to territorial intelligence. “I ask you to pay particular attention to the protection of prefectures and sub-prefectures, which could also be targeted,” he wrote yesterday to the prefects.
The Minister of the Interior also asks them for “any element” that seems to justify “the dissolution of these small groups with insurrectionary aims”. Gérald Darmanin already initiated the procedure on Tuesday for the dissolution of the group “Uprisings of the earth” (SLT), which he made responsible for the clashes on Saturday in Sainte-Soline.
The Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, announced this Thursday to take up the cases of two seriously injured demonstrators in Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres) on Saturday, as part of the clashes on the sidelines of the mobilization against the mega-basin project.
