Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – "Hundreds of thousands of us will take to the streets to express our anger. Authoritarian regimes that ban protests have never stopped social movements." Speaking to Adnkronos, Benjamin Ball, from the Yellow Vests coordination group, challenged French President Emmanuel Macron, who yesterday, at the end of the Security Council meeting held at the Elysée Palace, declared: "The line we've taken is that wherever there is a desire to gather, wherever there are demands made by people lacking any legitimacy, demonstrations will be banned."
Therefore, unorganized demonstrations, that is, those not called by unions, are illegal: this is the political strategy chosen by Macron's government, following the tensions and violence recorded on the sidelines of the October 17 mobilization.
Lyon is following the government's line and banning all demonstrations tomorrow, while in Marseille, protests have been authorized starting at 2:00 PM. As for union initiatives, they will be discussed with the prefecture and, in principle, approved. This is the case, for example, in the capital Paris, where the march was authorized but its route was changed, which will now go from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Nation.
Condemning the government's failure to listen to their demands, Ball added: "If there is not a swift and comprehensive response to all our demands, the president and his government will have to resign."
The curfew, encouraged by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, remains in place and is being extended in several cities, including the capital, which will remain under the measure until Monday.
Giancarlo Chiancone, an Italian teacher at a high school in the northern suburbs of Paris, told Adnkronos that the government's measure is "madness." Some cities, like Marseille, are suspending public transportation.
Speaking to French television station BFM, the Interior Ministry announced that the number of law enforcement personnel will be 20% higher than on October 17. Some officers on vacation have been recalled. Soldiers from Operation Sentinelle, an anti-terrorism unit created in 2015 after the attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, will also be on the ground.
Concerned by the shattered shop windows and looting on October 17th and 18th, merchants are also preparing for the demonstration, especially those with shops near the protest route and in the city center. Their shop windows are covered with large wooden panels, many businesses will remain closed, and some have decided to move their merchandise to basements. Security measures are also being increased near the Palaces of Power, where heavy barricades block the roads leading to the Elysée and Matignon. To prevent the construction of barriers and fires, the city of Paris has arranged for the removal of all movable street furniture: glass bell jars, the green bins that have become symbols of the protests, and waste materials left in front of homes are being removed.
For Chiancone, "what's happening expresses a social outrage, a very strong and exasperated anger." While he disagrees with the violence, the professor isn't surprised by the tensions and damage that have arisen in the wake of the protests: "I wondered how French society, with these disparities, these inequalities taken to the extreme, could maintain and sustain a balance that, to me, seemed precarious. Now it's simply exploded." (by Veronica Gennari)
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