In Rennes, the inter-union will not wait for May 1 to march in the street against the pension reform. A new call to demonstrate has been launched for Thursday, April 20. Since January, the Breton city has been one of the cities at the forefront of mobilization. It is also the most often affected by outbursts of violence on the sidelines of processions.
Friday April 14, after the validation of the essential of the text by the Constitutional Council, the old historic center was thus marked by new degradations, with in particular the fire of the door of a police station and the gate of a former convent become a place of congress.
Incidents also broke out on Saturday April 15, according to a repeating scenario. Regularly, several hundred people, masked and hooded, attack street furniture, shops, public buildings and the police.
The protest tradition of Rennes 2 University
For the oldest residents, it’s deja vu: riots broke out in 2006 during the movement against the first job contract (CPE), then in 2016 during demonstrations against the labor law in a regional capital. to the firmly anchored tradition of protest. “There is an ultra-left breeding ground that has persisted for years”, recalls Frédéric Gallet, departmental secretary of the Alliance police union.
This political family is notably present on the campus of the University of Rennes 2, historically marked on the left since its creation in 1969, to the point of being nicknamed “Rennes 2 la rouge”. Focused on the humanities and social sciences, letters, languages and sport, the establishment is used to seeing its students, generation after generation, step up to battles that go beyond the university framework. The premises were thus blocked last week for the fourth time since January. They were still Tuesday, April 18.
The ZAD, an incubator
The capital of Ille-et-Vilaine also has the distinction of being relatively close to Notre-Dame-des-Landes and its former “zone to defend”, erected against the airport project in Loire- Atlantic. « Cahead ZAD was able, for a time, to serve as an incubator for this movement”, emphasizes Philippe Astruc, public prosecutor in Rennes.
According to Frédéric Gallet, local activists are occasionally joined by activists from other departments or from abroad. “There is a hard core, from 200 to 300 people maximum, very mobile, it is quite complicated to managehe says. I don’t think it’s more violent than what we’ve experienced before, but there is more damage and breakage. »
For Philippe Astruc“radical groups work to escalate demonstrations as soon as possible, regardless of the subject of protest. These are very politicized activists seasoned in the techniques of harassment by the police and urban guerrilla warfare.. These small groups have a certain ability to bring with them either students or young people who wish to express their mistrust of political power or of such a project. »
It is the latter, less seasoned, who are most often challenged and ” generally have little or no criminal record”, says the prosecutor.
Three people sentenced to prison terms
Following the overflows of Saturday April 15, 14 people were placed in police custody. A man, in a situation of recidivism, was condemned to seven months of imprisonment and imprisoned. In the context of appearances on prior recognition of guilt (CRPC), two other demonstrators – also repeat offenders – were sentenced to six and five months’ imprisonment respectively and a one-year ban on demonstrating in the department.
Faced with this violence, the Minister of the Interior dispatched the CRS 8, an elite unit of the national police specializing in clashes in urban areas. Nathalie Appéré, PS mayor of Rennes, asked that this system be made permanent. She is also asking for state aid for traders in her city to compensate for the damage they suffer. In an April 15 statement, she calls “the government to recognize the heavy price that Rennes pays to the extreme social tension which is currently fracturing our country”.
