‘AS MANY as 180 people were detained in France last night (Wednesday) for participation in unrest, sparked by the police shooting a 17-year-old driver in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on June 27th,’ French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said yesterday.
‘A night of unbearable violence against the symbols of the Republic – arson and attacks on city hall buildings, schools and police departments. A total of 180 people were detained. I express my support for police officers, gendarmes and firefighters who are bravely confronting (the unrest). Shame on those who failed to call for calm,’ he wrote on Twitter.
Unrest broke out in the country on Tuesday after police shot dead a 17-year-old driver in Nanterre who had failed to comply with an order to stop his car. A police officer was arrested on suspicion of voluntary homicide.
The Nanterre prosecutor’s office launched a probe into refusal to obey police orders. As many as 24 police officers suffered injuries in clashes in Paris suburbs after the incident.
Protesters shot fireworks at police and set cars ablaze in the working class Paris suburb on Wednesday, in a second night of unrest following the fatal shooting of the 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop there.
The use of lethal force by officers against the teenager, who was of North African origin, has fed into a deep-rooted perception of police brutality in the ethnically diverse suburbs of France’s biggest cities.
Shortly before midnight, a trail of overturned vehicles burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines on Nanterre’s Avenue Pablo Picasso.
Police clashed with protesters in the northern city of Lille and in Toulouse in the south west and there was also unrest in Amiens, Dijon and the Essonne administrative department south of the French capital, a police spokesman said.
French media reported incidents in numerous other locations across the greater Paris region. Videos on social media showed dozens of fireworks being directed at the Montreuil town hall, on the eastern edge of Paris.
Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron called the shooting ‘unexplainable and inexcusable’.
A police officer is being investigated for voluntary homicide for shooting the youth. Prosecutors say he failed to comply with an order to stop his car.
The interior ministry has called for calm, and said 2,000 police have been mobilised in the Paris region.
Rights groups allege systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies in France, a charge Macron has previously denied.
A video shared on social media, shows two police officers beside the teenager’s car, a Mercedes AMG, with one shooting at the driver at close range as the car pulled away. He died shortly afterwards from his wounds, the local prosecutor said.
‘You have a video that is very clear: A police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the shooting is not within the rules,’ said Yassine Bouzrou, a lawyer for the family.
Lawmakers held a minute’s silence in the National Assembly, where Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the shooting ‘seems clearly not to comply with the rules’.
The family has filed a legal complaint against the officers for homicide, complicity in homicide and false testimony, the lawyer said.
In a video shared on TikTok, a woman identified as the victim’s mother called for a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. ‘Everyone come, we will lead a revolt for my son,’ she said.
Tuesday’s killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in 2023, down from a record 13 last year, a spokesperson for the national police said.
There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, the majority of victims since 2017 were black or of Arab origin.
France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the death, the sixth such inquiry into similar incidents in 2022 and 2023.
Macron’s remarks were unusually frank in a country where senior politicians are often reticent to criticise police given voters’ security concerns.
Two leading police unions fought back, saying the detained police officer should be presumed innocent until found otherwise.
He has faced criticism from rivals who accuse him of being soft on drug dealers and petty criminals and has implemented policies aimed at curbing urban crime, including greater authority for police to issue fines.
- French trade union federation the CGT has denounced ‘the union repressions which have been multiplying for several months and demands the protection of union freedoms’.
In a statement last week, the CGT said: ‘Abusive custody, repeated lawsuits, physical violence, damage to union premises, expulsion from labour exchanges, dismissals for strikes …
‘These attacks have been on the increase for several months.’
A fierce repression
‘The employers and the government do not just use institutional tactics to block the way to wage demands,’ said the CGT.
‘They develop a fierce repression against the employees in struggle and particularly against the CGT militants.
‘This situation led the confederal leadership to decide on nationally coordinated actions on June 1. In the process, Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, challenged in a letter, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne on this subject.
‘The collective appeal against the obstruction of militant and civic commitment and for trade union freedoms, signed by union and association activists and numerous intellectuals, researchers, teachers and academics recalls that “from the UN to major human rights NGOs, international institutions are concerned about the abuses of the police in the face of the movement against pension reform and the dangers to fundamental freedoms.
‘The United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of association, the European commissioner for human rights, the defender of rights and the controller of places of deprivation of liberty have called on the French government to respect international legislation.
‘The denunciation of attacks on trade union freedoms forced the government to propose to dig deeper into the subject.
‘Also, to demonstrate that this is not an isolated fact, but a conscious action, it is essential to drown the government in files. An address signalement.discrim(@)cgt.fr; to facilitate the identification and intervention with the various ministries concerned.
‘Already, the CGT requires an amnesty law for strikers, but also new rules for the protection of union activists and premises.
‘Finally, the CGT is working with the other trade unions to build a common front against the consequences of the 2017 Macron orders on social dialogue in the workplace.’
Also last week, the CGT revealed: ‘In the Dordogne, the two Mademoiselle Dessert sites went on strike for two days to demand legitimate wage increases.
‘The factory workers therefore earn after the struggle, more than 100 euros per month applicable from July 1, 2023. The employees were able to count on the CGT to listen to them and to the forefront of the union fight.
‘It is in the department of Dordogne that the factory producing frozen pastries and pies, Mademoiselle Dessert is located with its two sites: that of Condat-sur-Trincou and that of Thenon.
‘In total, 430 employees and 70 temporary workers work there on the ten production lines that make up all the sites.
‘The company is flourishing and supplies supermarket chains with flans, pies and other sweets that employees tirelessly produce day and night.
‘Because here, production is organised in 3×8-hour shifts to produce more and more goods and the use of temporary workers is exploding.
‘While wages are well ahead of the cost of living, employees are seizing the NAOs to demand significant wage increases to make up for the bank overdraft that everyone experiences in the middle of the month.
‘To be stronger, the CGT and CFDT unions of Mademoiselle Dessert decided to join forces in order to engage in the wage battle.
‘Thus, the two unions decided to organise service rounds together to talk to each and every employee both day and night. It’s a long meticulous work but oh so necessary because the success of the fight depends on it.
‘At the end of these exchanges, 80% of the employees declared themselves in favour of the strike to support their demands now placed on the negotiating table, demanding:
- Request for a monthly increase of 250 euros for all
- Hourly increase of 40% of night work and atypical hours
- Revaluation of the retirement indemnity by an additional half month’s salary for each segment of seniority
- Increase in the budget allocated to social and cultural works of the CSE
- Guarantee of effective taking of compensatory rest days for night workers
‘The strike was therefore called on Tuesday, June 13 by the shutdown of 90% of production.
‘Creamers, kneaders, fruit setters, packers, suppliers, storekeepers and cleaners stopped work and picketed outside the factory.
‘Condat-sur-Trincou under the banner of the CGT lent by the union CGT FAPT 24 (Postal and communication activities) and the Local Union of Périgueux. The local unions of Périgueux, Vallée de l’Isle and Nord Dordogne without forgetting the Union Départementale de Dordogne are fully committed to union solidarity.
‘Throughout the conflict, they provided moral and financial support to the strikers. They thus shared all their meals, surrounded by the red flags of the CGT in a spirit of struggle.
‘The employees hastily made a banner that read “On strike and it’s not flan!”. We can say that the workers here were not lacking in humour with such a slogan since the company posted on a sign in front of the factory the following message “We are recruiting and it’s not easy!”
‘Faced with collapsing stocks and the powerful mobilisation of workers, the pressure was becoming too much for management.
‘It was after ten exchanges between the management and the unions that things were resolved.
‘The victory was there. Employees obtained significant salary increases on June 15, distributed as follows:
- 103 euros gross monthly for the 1st college
- 95 euros gross monthly for the 2nd college
- 3.5% for the 3rd college
‘These wage increases won 3 days after the start of the strike are applicable from July 1, 2023. The workers are satisfied with the fight.
‘This victory was possible thanks to the serious and committed militant work of the site’s CGT union, which, with 80% of the votes cast during the professional elections of April of that same year, did honour to the trust granted by the employees.
‘In addition to the 80 employees already unionised in the CGT at Mademoiselle Dessert, more than a dozen workers at the end of the conflict, decided to join the CGT for new social conquests in the business and beyond.’