‘RAMBO’ OF YELLOW VEST MOVEMENT IN CUSTODY
▶ Protesters rally behind former boxer after attack on police officers
Former French boxing champion Christophe Dettinger has become an unlikely hero of the country’s Yellow Vests movement after he was filmed attacking police officers during a demonstration in Paris.
Mr Dettinger, 37, handed himself in to police this week and faces prosecution for punching one gendarme, and kicking another as he lay on the ground last Saturday.
The former boxer, who won France’s light heavyweight title in 2007, has gained public support for his actions, with almost 8,000 donors pledging more than €116,000 (Dh491,000) to help fight his case.
Crowdfunding company Leetchi suspended the appeal after criticism from police unions and politicians.
Mr Dettinger, who won 18 of his 22 professional bouts, tried to justify his actions in a video circulated by relatives, which has since been viewed by millions.
In the video, he admits he reacted badly to the police’s treatment of protesters. He claimed that he was tear-gassed by authorities, alongside his wife and a friend, and became angry when he saw police employing similar tactics against pensioners, as well as using plastic bullets.
Mr Dettinger has received messages of support and even admiration. He has been hailed as the protest movement’s own “Rambo”.
However, one of the officers he injured said that he felt as if the former boxer intended “to cause real harm, even to kill if he could”.
Police unions also expressed outrage over the appeal fund. Benoit Barret, deputy leader of the Police Alliance Nationale, told the French television station BFMTV that the fund was “a bonus for beating up a cop”, adding to the humiliation of the two injured officers.
Guillaume Kasbarian, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s parliamentary majority, said on Twitter that the crowdfunding was a “moral wreck”.
He said the donations were shameful at a time when associations struggle to raise money for “more exemplary and humanistic” projects.
In response to the violent protests which have swept across the country, Mr Macron’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced measures to counter the violence.
He said the government would support a new law to punish the organisers of unauthorised demonstrations, banning known troublemakers from taking part and arresting protesters who turn up wearing masks to conceal their identities.
The proposals highlight the increasing ugliness of unrest that was initially a response to fuel prices, but which have now become a revolt against Mr Macron’s economic policies.
Ten people have died in incidents at or near roadblocks set up by protesters. Journalists have also been attacked repeatedly while covering protests.
But Sophia Chikirou, a former campaign director for the farleft Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise party, said that after earlier disturbances, she felt no sympathy for them.
Despite the trouble during each of the eight weekend protests in Paris so far, as well as other flash points across the country, polls suggest over half the population believes the Yellow Vests movement should continue.
Leaders of Italy’s ruling coalition – the far-right Matteo Salvini and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement’s Luigi Di Maio – expressed solidarity.
Mr Macron’s own standing in the polls has slumped since he won the presidential election against conservative leader Marine Le Pen in May 2017.
Recent surveys suggest 75 per cent of the public oppose his government’s policies, and 60 per cent were unimpressed by his New Year message, in which he said he understood public anger but remained committed to his reform programme.
With further protests due to take place in France’s major cities this weekend, the government is also working on ways to put the onus on “the troublemakers, and not taxpayers” to pay for damage to businesses and properties.