“It’s part of the social struggle.” Philippe Poutou, a guest on BFMTV this Friday, refused to “condemn” the violence that may have taken place over several days in France outside the mobilization against the pension reform. For the spokesman for the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA), the government is also showing violence by repressing these marches, or by deciding to approve this law using 49.3.
“Je ne condemne pas des feux de poubelles”, in response to the former candidate for the présidentielle election, I interrogated for savoir s’il condamnait l’incendie de la porte de la mairie à Bordeaux ou encore le pavé lancé sur le casque d ‘a policeman.
“The political movement has the right to defend itself”
“No, I do not condemn, I do not know what happened,” continued Philippe Poutou, before exclaiming: “The violence, what violence? I, I don’t know anything about it, I have protested from the beginning.” Finally, what I saw were garbage fires, so if that is violence… No, I do not condemn garbage fires. Garbage fires!”
The NPA spokesman also believes that, in this context, “we can also denounce the lady who lost her thumb” or “the motorcyclists who get on the protesters: this violence there.” He refers in particular to the injury of a mother at a demonstration in Rouen on Thursday. For him, “the political movement has the right to organize itself, to defend itself, to respond to the blows it receives because the legitimacy of violence cannot only be on the side of power.”
“It is still inflated by (the government) to pretend that the violence comes from the demonstrations when it comes from power,” he continued indignantly at our microphone. “The violence comes from police repression on the one hand, but not only, also because they are destroying our pensions. (…) Today there is real political repression, a real obstacle to the right to demonstrate and that provokes anger. “.
After the ninth day of the mobilization, the mobilization intensified with numerous incidents on the sidelines and within the processions. Among the most notorious incidents, the door of the Bordeaux town hall was burned. The demonstrators attacked the police station and the sub-prefecture of Lorient. In Paris, a garbage fire almost causes a fire in a building on rue Saint-Marc.
At the same time, more than 450 people were arrested and “441 police officers and gendarmes” were injured, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced Thursday.
Source: BFM TV
