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At least 95 people were arrested and 67 policemen have been injured after the protests and the strong disturbances this past Saturday in several cities of France during the latest protest against the Global Security Law planned by the French Government.
The balance was provided by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin on his Twitter account, where he specified that 48 of the agents were injured during the riots in Paris, the most violent.
“I give them my full support,” added the minister, who has not detailed the number of injured among the protesters.
According to the bill, the publication of images of security forces “with the aim of damaging the physical or mental well-being of the agents” could be fined up to 45,000 euros and a year in jail. The government party, La República en Marcha, has already promised to reformulate the most controversial points of the text.
The Paris demonstration, which began at the Puerta de Lilas under the slogan “For social rights and freedom”, initially had a large participation, including many activists from the ‘yellow vest’ movement.
Tension, violence and riots in France
However, as the minutes passed, the tension and riots increased. The images captured by French television have included burning cars and damaged shop windows, between dense columns of black smoke and one photo in particular, the one captured by photojournalist Anne Christine-Poujoulat, which shows an agent engulfed in flames, surrounded by colleagues.
Police sources point out that between 400 and 500 “radical elements” perpetrated vandalism such as attacks on businesses – bank branches and real estate agencies – or burning of vehicles, at least six cars and a truck. They also threw objects at the police, who responded with tear gas.
The Interior Ministry has reported 52,350 attendees at the 90 concentrations, of which 5,000 would correspond to the Paris demonstration, figures lower than those of last week, when there were 133,000 protesters throughout France, 46,000 of them in the capital.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La Francia Insoumise, participated in the Marseille event. The leftist leader has called for “throwing away” the security law. “There is no shame in backing down,” he has argued from a former American burger joint now a soup kitchen.
“In Marseille, this event acquires a particular meaning since, unfortunately, we do not have any video recording that allows us to better understand” how Zineb Redouane, an octogenarian died on December 2, 2018 in a hospital, 24 hours after being struck by a tear gas canister fired by the police while at her home.
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