The police “have a duty to set an example” in the mobilization against the pension reform, Elisabeth Borne said on Tuesday, while unions of lawyers, magistrates and left-wing politicians denounced police violence.
“Tribute” to police and gendarmes
“In the face of this violence [de manifestants contre la réforme des retraites, NDLR], I again want to pay tribute to our law enforcement agencies that provide security for demonstrations. And I repeat, they have the duty to set an example and they know it, our policemen as well as our gendarmes”, declared the Prime Minister before the National Assembly, during the question-and-answer session with the government.
“Any report is examined,” added Ms Borne, who responded to a question from the leader of the Green MPs, Cyrielle Chatelain.
“Certain reforms require responsibility to act, to act to save our pay-as-you-go pension system,” defended the prime minister, weakened in Matignon after the use of 49.3 that allowed the pension reform to be approved without a vote in the Assembly but has fueled the protest in the streets.
The pension reform is the result of a “compromise”, he argued, “built with all those who want to save our pay-as-you-go pension system, when some opt for the chaos strategy of shouting and insults”. “How then can you blame us for the fact that this text could not be scrutinized to its conclusion, and how dare you blame us for this and blame us for the violence in the street?”
IGPN seized on sexual assault charges
In Nantes, the public prosecutor’s office announced on Monday that four young people have filed a complaint for “sexual assault” during a police control carried out on March 14 after a filtering operation against the pension reform and the IGPN was seized.
More than 1,200 undeclared demonstrations, “sometimes violent”, have taken place in France since Elisabeth Borne’s announcement of the use of 49.3 to adopt the reform, identified Gérald Darmanin. The Interior Minister has said that “94 agents” have been injured since Thursday and has announced that he will go to “the head of the wounded policemen in Paris” in the afternoon.
While magistrates, lawyers and politicians denounce “arbitrary” police custody, he stressed “the essential proportionality of the use of force and the need to immediately seize inspections in the event of a lack of ethics.”
425 arrests from Thursday to Saturday for 52 charges
According to the latest report from the Paris prosecutor’s office, 425 people were detained by the police during the first three nights of spontaneous demonstrations, from Thursday to Saturday. Only 52 of them were prosecuted in the end. “There are no unjustified arrests” in Paris, Police Prefect Laurent Núñez said Tuesday.
Four young people filed a complaint for “sexual assault” during a police control carried out in Nantes on March 14 after a purging operation against the pension reform and the IGPN was seized, we learned this Monday with the prosecutor’s office.
Source: BFM TV
