Violence erupts in new Paris protest against security law
VIOLENCE erupted in Paris on December 5 for the second consecutive weekend at a mass protest against a new security law, with demonstrators clashing with police, vehicles set alight and shop windows smashed.
The weekly nationwide protests are becoming a major h e a d a c h e f o r Pre s i d e n t Emmanuel Macron’s government, with tensions intensified by the beating of a black music producer by police last month.
However, the numbers were less than half on December 5 with the nationwide figure at 52,350 against 133,000 a week earlier, the interior ministry said.
Around 5,000 people demonstrated in Paris against 46,000 last week, it added.
Members of the so-called yellow vests movement, which shook Macron with protests against a lack of equality in France over the winter of 2018-2019, were also prominent in the rally.
Windows of a supermarket, property agency and bank were broken while several cars were in flames along Avenue Gambetta as thousands of demonstrators marched towards the central Place de la Republique, AFP reporters said.
Objects were also thrown at police who responded by using tear gas, in a repeat of the violent scenes from the protests last weekend against the security law that would restrict publication of pictures showing the faces of police.
Some demonstrators used objects left in the streets to create impromptu barricades that they then set on fire. A bank was ransacked by protesters who broke inside and brought out papers that they burned in the street.
Protesters, some letting off smoke bombs and firecrackers, shouted slogans including “Everyone hates the police”.
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter that police in Paris were facing “very violent individuals”.
“The thugs are breaking down the Republic,” he said.
Si x t y- f o ur peopl e were detained across the country, Darmanin said, adding that eight police officers were injured.
‘No contradiction’
It was one of almost 100 protests planned throughout France against the new security law with thousands gathering in cities including Montpellier, Marseille and Nantes, where two police were wounded by a Molotov cocktail.
French police had been deployed in force to avert trouble after the violent clashes erupted during the demonstration in Paris a week ago that saw dozens wounded.
Media freedom and human rights groups have led protests for weeks to have the government scrap or revise a bill that would restrict the filming of police, saying it would make it harder to prosecute cases of abuse.