Laura Laplaud with AFP
modified to
09:12, March 31, 2023
Asked about accusations of police brutality in France, a White House spokesman said Thursday that the US executive “supports the right to demonstrate peacefully there as everywhere else”. Guest of Europe Matin Friday, the Minister of Labor Olivier Dusspot defended the police “who maintain order” and “do an absolutely incredible job”.
“It is in the ranks of the far left that we most often find the thugs”
“I am always marked when we put an equal sign between the thugs and the police. The police are not the problem. The problem is the thugs, the rioters, those who come to the demonstrations to break and to violate, “said replied to the microphone of Europe 1 the Minister of Labor.
“To put an equal sign between the maintenance of order and the deliberate will to be violent and to break is not acceptable. When the far left speaks of an authoritarian state, speaks of authoritarian drift, of police brutality, whereas it is in its ranks that we most often find the thugs and those who attack the police, it is still a hell of an inversion of values”, he declared.
35% of French people agree to resort to violent actions to advance their cause
According to an Ifop poll for Paris Première, 35% of French people agree, in the context of the demonstrations against the pension reform, with the following statement: “It is sometimes necessary to resort to violent actions to advance one’s cause or ideas”. A share that rises to 60% among supporters of La France insoumise. “Any violence, whether physical or verbal, is not acceptable. And it’s not really a surprise to see that among LFI supporters, this percentage is higher,” he said.
For Emmanuel Macron, the demonstrators of Sainte-Soline had “come to make war”
The question of the response of the police also arose following violence which occurred last weekend during a mobilization in the west of France against controversial water retention systems.
Emmanuel Macron estimated Thursday that the thousands of demonstrators had “simply come to make war”. “In some, a form of habit of violence sets in, it must be fought with great firmness,” he said.
The League for Human Rights denounced “an immoderate use” of force, and the organizers of the demonstration in western France counted 200 injured, including a blinded person and two in a coma.