Emmanuel Macron has been accused by unions of trying to restrict the fundamental right of French people to protest as the government accelerates the adoption of a bill aimed at making demonstrators pay for damage caused by vandalism during street demonstrations, even if they are not directly responsible.
The French president, who leaves office next spring, has faced more than a month of protests in which high school students blocked schools to demand a response to teacher absences, repairs to decrepit buildings and changes to the college application platform.
Unions and anti-government Yellow Vest protesters are now joining sustained street protests amid a growing social crisis over schools, as well as the cost of living and public services. Authorities have stepped up security measures and imposed restrictions on protests after France experienced one of its worst days of violence in years earlier this month, when largely peaceful demonstrations were marred by looting, burning and vandalism of public buildings.
The Senate will debate this week the law proposed by the government on “vandal remuneration”. The legislation would mean that a protester could be liable to pay up to €10,000 for damage and vandalism, even if they are not directly the cause, if they continue to protest near or in the same group as the perpetrators. The bill also provides for increased use of drones during protests.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said the bill, initially prepared following violent clashes after Paris Saint-Germain’s victory over Arsenal in the Champions League in May, was “absolutely essential” after looting and burning during recent protests across France.
This bill comes as the government is struggling to contain the current crisis. Marine Le Pen of the far-right, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) has seen her frontrunner status in next spring’s presidential election bolstered as she seeks to bolster her law-and-order credentials and support the police.
Le Pen, who appealed to France’s highest court against her conviction for embezzling European Parliament funds, launched her presidential campaign on Sunday at a rally in Orléans, promising to “bring order to France”.
The RN claimed the “vandals pay” bill was originally her idea and Le Pen said she would ensure property damage was paid for by the rioters. Le Pen told a cheering crowd of more than 8,000 people at the rally: “The vandals will pay and if it takes them their whole lives to pay, then they will spend their whole lives paying.” »
She said: “We will restore the rule of law. Who can claim that there is a rule of law when hordes come to ransack and burn our buildings?”
Éric Coquerel of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical left, said Sunday that the “vandals pay” law would “mean the end of street protests” in France because people would not want to risk being held responsible and forced to pay up to 10,000 euros for acts of vandalism they did not commit. Communist senator Fabien Gay declared to the parliamentary television channel Public Senate: “No demonstrations can anymore take place in our country.”
In an open letter to Le Monde, left-wing unions and the French Human Rights League wrote: “This unjust law, which constitutes a serious attack on the freedom to demonstrate, must be abandoned, under penalty of rolling back the rule of law. »
During this weekend’s protests, there was widespread anger against Macron, who had banned non-union demonstrations that his government deemed “illegitimate” and had kept all demonstrators away from city centers.
Although Macron did not impose a state of emergency, the government and local authorities introduced limits on protests, including bans on gatherings outside schools and demonstrating in city centers, as well as curfews in some places and extended periods of police custody for the record number of people arrested.
At this weekend’s protests, many said they had come to defend the French right to demonstrate in the streets. Street protests in France, seen as a fundamental way for citizens to make their voice heard by a centralized state, have regularly been used to voice criticism of changes to the law, from pension changes to same-sex marriage.
Serge Slama, professor of public law at Grenoble Alpes University, told Télérama magazine: “Even if the state of emergency has been ruled out at this stage (by Emmanuel Macron), we have seen a number of decrees bringing a broad restriction to public freedoms. »
He said it was “unprecedented” and would benefit the far right if it wins elections next year, allowing it to implement new crackdowns without changing the law.
Lecornu will meet representatives of protesting high school students on Monday as the government is under pressure to meet their demands by providing funding and repairs to schools to avoid further school blockages.
Gn world
