The Council of Europe expressed its concern at the “excessive use of force” by French police forces, following a day marked by street violence against the reform raising the retirement age. President Emmanuel Macron, who was forced to postpone Carlos III’s visit to the country, showed indifference to the social tensions, stating that “the country cannot stand still”, while the left-wing opposition tries to block the initiative by proposing a referendum. pose about the matter.
Emmanuel Macron does not want to succumb to pressure from the street and remains hopeful that the increase in the retirement age to 64 years will be legislated by the end of the year. “We will not give in to violence. In a democracy there is no right to violence,” he said in Brussels, referring to “disproportionate attacks by extremely violent and equipped militants.”
The French head of state, who did not calm down in a television interview on Wednesday evening, reaffirmed that he wanted to negotiate with the unions on other issues and that the reform would “continue on its democratic path”, that is, would be appreciated by the Constitutional Council. This is done at the request of the government, the left-wing alliance Nupes and the National Union of Marine Le Pen. “We will continue. The country cannot stand still”, he concluded.
The opposition denounces that a pension reform is being implemented through an amending law on the financing of social security. And left-wing parties asked the Constitutional Council to consider the possibility of putting the law to a referendum. If so, the first step is to collect 4.7 million signatures in nine months.
Tempers ran high on Thursday, both among the most radical ranks of the demonstrators and among the security forces. According to data from the Interior Ministry, the mobilization of more than a million people (3.5 million according to the trade union center CGT) led to 457 arrests and 441 law enforcement injuries. No data has been released on the protesters injured by police, but there were 13 in Rouen alone, one of them seriously.
Faced with the powder keg on which the government of Élisabeth Borne and President Macron sit, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin pointed the finger at “often far-left bandits” who want to “overthrow the state, kill police and attack the institutions “. Hours later, in an interview with CNews, he called the violent protesters “black bourgeoisie“, a play on words regarding the extremists black blocks and the bourgeoisie.
But the violent actions of the police are also visible and videos multiply on social media in which disproportionate force is used against peaceful demonstrators. To this, in the same interview, Darmanin resorted to the argument that some police officers, being “under the influence of fatigue”, “commit acts that are not in accordance”.
According to the minister, eleven investigations are ongoing by the Inspectorate General of the Police into incidents that took place in the past week. And in these surveys, not one will be about the performance of a controversial repression squad, BRAV-M. O Le monde revealed a recording in which a dozen of these officers threaten, insult and humiliate seven young detainees for 20 minutes, while attacking one of them.
Given the events, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic criticized the “excessive use of force” against the demonstrators. “There were violent incidents, some of which targeted the police,” the commissioner admitted. “But the sporadic acts of violence by some protesters cannot justify the excessive use of force by state agents,” he continued, “nor are these acts sufficient to deprive peaceful protesters of the right to freedom of assembly.”
A testament to how tempers are running high, Deputy Aurore Bergé, from Macron’s Renaissance party, denounced being the target of death threats, as was her four-month-old baby.
Moscow and Tehran benefit
Non-democratic regimes, such as the Russian and Iranian regimes, meanwhile, took advantage of the French crisis to score points. “When will Macron begin supplying arms to French citizens to support the country’s democracy and sovereignty?” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked. In Russia, television channels – which are not allowed to broadcast any demonstration against the war in Ukraine – pay a lot of attention to French news.
The strike by garbage collectors in the capital led to comments such as “in Paris, it’s the Middle Ages, the stench and the hordes of rats”, while false information assumed that electricity had gone out at police stations in the French capital. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader with public ties to Vladimir Putin, has been heard by the Russian media about denouncing the West’s alleged lessons of democracy. According to France Info, Sputnik radio said the French government supports the demonstrations when they take place in Georgia, but does not want them domestically.
Tehran, on the other hand, resorted to the proverb “he who sows the wind, reaps the storm” to comment on the act of vandalism at the door of the Bordeaux municipality. “We do not support destruction or riots, but instead of creating chaos in other countries, we advocate listening to the voice of your people and avoiding the use of force against them,” the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense advised. Foreign Affairs of Iran, Nasser Kanani, on Twitter.
Subsequently, on a video of French police attacking the demonstrators, Kanani commented that “this kind of violence has nothing to do with leaning on the chair of moral lessons and preaching to others”.
The Shia regime took the opportunity to counter criticism from other countries, including France, for its repression in response to the uprising that began last September after the death in police custody of young Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini, who was detained for failing to observance of the rules of use of the Islamic veil. Since then, hundreds of deaths, including children and youth, and thousands of arrests have been recorded, with sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States.
Q&A
Why are the French protesting?
Which measure is at stake?
The reform aims to bring France into line with the European average in terms of retirement age. The French worker, who retired at the age of 60 until 2010, started doing so at the age of 62 and now, from 2030, he will have to turn 64. And to get a full pension he will have to have 43 years of cuts from 2027. The government said the reform would enable savings, after warning that the current situation could lead to €150 billion in accumulated deficits over the next decade. yield.
What led to the political crisis?
Any attempt to reform the public sector and social security is usually met with opposition from the French. This time, the government of Élisabeth Borne implemented the reform of the pension system. These measures were part of Emmanuel Macron’s program and during the first term, the government of Édouard Philippe, which had a parliamentary majority, presented a more complex reform that would raise the retirement age to 65. But the first protests also came with the pandemic, putting the project in the drawer. Meanwhile, Macron was re-elected after again announcing that “people need to work longer”. But his party lost the majority in the parliamentary elections. Despite the law being passed in the Senate, no vote was taken in the National Assembly because there was no majority, so the government passed the measure on the 16th by means provided by the Constitution, invoking Article 49.3 and bypass parliament. .
What was the response?
Until then, the protest movement was losing momentum, but the movement was very badly received by the public, with two out of three opposing this policy. Two motions of censure were voted on Monday, with the government less than ten deputies away from falling. Demonstrations and strikes follow each other, violence by demonstrators and police broke out and the situation worsened after Macron questioned the legitimacy of the masses in an interview with two TV channels.
Source: DN
