Several teachers’ unions had planned to meet this Thursday, January 20, in order to demand “strong responses to the chaos caused by the health crisis”. The demonstration was finally banned by the Paris police headquarters due to delays.
As explained in a press release published on Tuesday, “the Prefect of Police indicates that he has not banned the demonstration on Thursday January 20, declared by FSU, Sud Education, FO, CGT Education and the FCPE on January 18, 2022 “.
However, the police prefecture says it received the declaration of demonstration this Tuesday at “12:20 p.m.”, which goes against the law which “requires demonstrations to be declared within a period of more than 3 days”.
Faced with this breach of the regulations, the Prefect of Police “found that the legal deadlines were not respected and that he could therefore not issue a receipt”.
“drawing the consequences of the law”
As stipulated in the Penal Code, the organizers of a demonstration whose declaration is non-compliant incur up to six months in prison and a fine of 7,500 euros. In addition, participants risk a fine of 135 euros.
The Prefect of Police ensures that it is up to “the organizers to draw the consequences of the law”. While the CGT considers this decision “unacceptable”, the union Force Ouvrière (FO) says “maintain its wish to gather in front of the Ministry of Education, that same day, Thursday”.