Social unrest continues in France. New protests are planned for today, Saturday, amid tight security measures, for the fourth consecutive weekend, centered on Paris, where the “yellow vests” intend to target centers of power, two days after a large-scale nationwide mobilization following a call from the unions.
Hundreds of thousands of people—575,000 according to authorities, 1.6 million according to the CGT union—demonstrated last Thursday across France, demanding an increase in their purchasing power.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Today’s new mobilization aims to keep up the pressure, two days before the social dialogue with the unions and French employers’ organizations convened by the government on Monday morning, and the meetings with high school and college student organizations in the afternoon.
In a letter sent yesterday to the social partners, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu—facing an autumn marked by intense social tensions—assured them that “(he is listening to) the expectations being expressed regarding wages and purchasing power” as well as the “concerns” of employers. The dialogue will “allow for concrete responses to the expectations of the French people,” he said.
A coordinating body for youth organizations and regional labor unions have called for a demonstration and march today “against high prices and in support of youth,” which will follow a specific route—for which a permit has been granted, as on Thursday—in Paris between Place de la République and Place de la Nation.
The coordinating body of the “yellow vests” has decided to demonstrate independently, clearly distancing itself from the unions. It is calling for a separate rally—for which the authorities have not granted permission—at Place de la Concorde.
“We’ll be at the Place de la Concorde at 2:00 p.m. and will stay there until 7:00 p.m.,” Benjamin Bal, a member of their coordinating committee, told the press yesterday as he left the Paris police headquarters—even though the police had banned the demonstration. “We are calling for mass civil disobedience,” he warned.
The choice of location is no coincidence, explained David Libeskind, a lawyer for the “Yellow Vests”: the Concorde is “an iconic location, close to the National Assembly, a seat of power, since our demands are political.”
The “Yellow Vests” are planning a total of about 120 demonstrations today across the country, a number that is, however, far from the 1,700 protests on October 17.
Following Thursday’s demonstration, which “generally went smoothly,” according to the Ministry of the Interior, the authorities want to avoid at all costs a repeat of the scenes of rioting and looting that occurred on October 17, the first Saturday of the protests.
The large-scale deployment of security forces has been extended since then, with 70,000 police officers and gendarmes mobilized throughout France, as announced by Interior Minister Laurent Nunes.
Source: Proto Thema
