Protesters waved the French flag from the top of a Paris statue on Saturday as demonstrators across France vented frustrations ranging from the rising cost of living to opposition to a new police bill. The protests come as the European Union's second largest economy has been gripped by high-school blockades and demonstrations demanding better wages for more than a month before presidential elections next year to replace Emmanuel Macron. While some of the largely peaceful rallies have seen fringe violence, they have also featured accusations of police brutality, including against young teenagers.
Yellow Vest movement member Benjamin Ball joined several thousand protesters in Paris alongside students, unions, and rights activists on the capital's Republique square. "The government has only given us crumbs, and we want the whole bakery," he said. Adrien, a 20-year-old cello player participating with a volunteer orchestra, explained that the focus of the day was a new parliamentary bill granting police who use their weapons a presumption of legitimate self-defence.
"We're scared when we come to a protest, and this will only make us even more afraid if their impunity is strengthened," Adrien said, recalling that tear gas fell on a similar group of protesting musicians last month. Backers of the new police bill, including the far-right party of leading presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen, argue the legislation is necessary to prevent law enforcement officers from being automatically suspected of disproportionate force. Supporters maintain it is needed in a country where cases of alleged police brutality rarely reach a criminal court.
In the southern city of Toulouse, 28-year-old asylum law specialist Kenza joined thousands in the march. "The repression of protesters is unacceptable -- even more so when they are children," said Kenza, who declined to give her surname. Last week, lawyers reported that police violence during recent protests had led to mutilations, including hand, foot, and eye injuries.
Official authorities reported that around 146,000 people took part in demonstrations across France on Saturday last week, marking far lower numbers than previous weekends. The largest recent protests occurred during a union-led strike on Thursday last week, when official figures showed more than half a million people took to the streets nationwide. Following their rejection of a government promise to increase the minimum wage by 0.6 percent as mere crumbs, unions have called for a new day of strikes on Tuesday.
Source: The Local. Read the original report ↗