Demonstration against basins in Sainte-Soline: the use of violence – France

Violence is unbearable but it exists. We will avoid talking about “war scenes” in Sainte-Soline because the “real” war is taking place on our doorstep in Ukraine. But the clashes are very violent with victims in “absolute urgency”. They are reminiscent of those that took place in the past in Genoa (Italy) or Seattle (United States) on the initiative of alter-globalists. The fact that there are fewer wounded on the demonstrators’ side than on the mobile gendarmes’ side shows at least a certain restraint on their part, contrary to the accusations of police violence of which the agit-prop specialists speak.

Today, the forces of order are scrutinized, recorded, filmed. And sometimes overwhelmed, as was the case at the Arc de Triomphe by the yellow vests. The IGPN seizes on the slightest slippage, we are not in the United States. But there is undoubtedly a problem of public order in France which started under François Hollande after the vote of the Labor law prepared by Minister El Khomri.

The original sin

The original sin undoubtedly comes, at the time, from the retreat on the airport of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. The “zadists” then understood that they could impose their law. Violence today legitimized by the deputies of La France insoumise who offer a distressing spectacle to the Assembly. Where does this resurgence of the far left come from in France, unlike our European neighbors? From the collapse of the Socialist Party which had promoted a culture of government and from the fact that in Italy and Germany it was permanently disqualified by the criminal actions of the Red Brigades and the Rote Armee Fraktion.

The security reorganization carried out by the former minister, Christophe Castaner, and the prefect of police, Didier Lallement, has shown a certain effectiveness in allowing the police to make contact. This does not prevent suspicions against the authorities from letting the situation deteriorate to obtain a reaction of rejection of the demonstrations by public opinion.

“Macron feeds the mess and Darmanin does his Marcellin”

The police unionist, Linda Kebbab, declared the other day on BFM that the black blocks were identified and could be practically arrested when they left the metro. Reality is more complex. As much as the small groups on the ultra right are known because they are organized vertically, those on the far left are part of a more diffuse nebula. “Macron feeds the mess and Darmanin does his Marcellin, otherwise they would have defused it. We must do like Pompidou, in 1968, and open a big negotiation by withdrawing the pension reform, ”said one of my interlocutors who hates the head of state and he is not the only one.

Nevertheless, the country no longer has the means for the largesse of the time, especially since it has been exhausted by the health crisis. And Macron is not Chirac, who let go of his two Prime Ministers, Juppé then Villepin, to yield to the demonstrators twice, on the special regimes, in 1995, and on the CPE, in 2006. Will he emulate of Thatcher who broke the unions during the great miners’ strike in 1984-85? Probably not. France is not England and we have changed eras. It remains to be seen whether Laurent Berger’s opening attempt will be followed up.