Thousands of protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday, marking the fifth consecutive Saturday of nationwide protests.
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The Yellow Vest movement, students and education unions took to the streets to voice a range of frustrations, from the rising cost of living to calls for better education funding, stronger protections for children and adolescents and a new police bill.
In Paris, many people gathered at Place de la République, which has long been a symbolic and common gathering place for nationwide protests.
“We ask to have teachers when we go to class. We ask that the ceilings do not collapse on us when we eat in the canteen. We ask, when we have the baccalaureate, despite the conditions which deteriorate every year, to be able to continue our studies at university”, declared Marius Mesnil, co-secretary general of the High School Union.
France has been shaken for more than a month by school blockades and demonstrations.
The Interior Ministry estimates that around 106,000 people took to the streets across the country on Saturday, including 24,000 in Paris. Organizers estimate this number at 200,000, including 100,000 in the capital.
The turnout for Saturday’s demonstration was lower than usual. The largest demonstration in recent weeks took place on Thursday, during a strike led by unions. More than half a million people took to the streets across the country.
Unions have called for another day of strike next Tuesday, after rejecting the government’s promise to increase the minimum wage by 0.6%, which they say is not enough.
“The government has only given us crumbs, and we want the whole bakery,” said Benjamin Ball, a member of the Yellow Vest movement.
“License to kill” bill
Protesters also expressed opposition to a new police bill that would give police officers and gendarmes additional protection when using firearms in the line of duty.
Supporters of the bill, including Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, currently favored in opinion polls for the presidential race, say the new law is necessary to prevent law enforcement officers from being automatically presumed guilty of excessive use of force.
However, unions say the bill amounts to a “license to kill” for police and would make it even harder to hold law enforcement officials accountable. In France, cases of alleged police brutality are rare until the criminal court.
“What the so-called “license to kill” law provides, which will be put to the vote next week, is literally that a police officer who shoots will first be presumed to have acted legally,” declared Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the Students’ Union.
“Another layer of impunity for those who bludgeon us, gas us and mutilate us. Another layer of impunity for this police force which acts as the armed arm of the State,” she added.
Kenza, 28, was among thousands of protesters who took to the streets of the southern French city of Toulouse. “The repression of demonstrators is unacceptable, especially when it concerns children.”
Last week, lawyers representing at least 18 people injured during protests in France in recent weeks said they would take the Interior Ministry to court over its responsibility for allegations of police brutality, local media reported.
They condemned the use of force by police during the protests, which they said led to “mutilations”, including injuries to the hands, feet and eyes of demonstrators.
Additional sources • AFP
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