The anger of the street does not fade. Since the Prime Minister announced last Thursday the use of section 49.3 to pass the pension reform, demonstrations are organized every day, almost everywhere in France. Saturday evening, in Paris, the protesters gathered at Place de la Concorde, where the gatherings were nevertheless prohibited by order of the Prefecture of police. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 400 checks took place and 12 people were arrested. The 13th arrondissement of the capital, in which 4,200 people were deported, was also the scene of clashes with the police in the evening. In the Place d’Italie sector, the police made 110 arrests. In other cities, 47 other people were arrested.
It should be noted that it is not forbidden to participate in an undeclared demonstration. Since 1935, it has been compulsory to notify the prefecture or the town hall of a demonstration beforehand. The organizers of an undeclared gathering risk up to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of 7,000 euros. On the other hand, in a judgment of June 8, 2022, the Court of Cassation recalls that “neither article R. 610-5 of the Criminal Code, nor any other legal or regulatory provision criminalizes the mere fact of participating in a demonstration not declared”. Only participation in a prohibited event after declaration is liable to a 4th class fine.
“Government reaction”
Last Thursday, a few hours after Elisabeth Borne’s speech before the National Assembly, around 10,000 opponents of the reform met spontaneously at Place de la Concorde. 292 demonstrators were arrested and taken into custody that evening. Only nine were transferred, and all the other police custody were lifted without prosecution. From there to think that the police are zealous?
During these demonstrations, the police can carry out “administrative arrests, in order to verify the identity of a person for a maximum of 4 hours. It shows that there is a reaction from the public authorities, ”explains Jean-Christophe Couvy, national secretary of the SGP police FO unit union. “But we can also arrest people because they have committed serious offences, damage or violence, and in this case, we place them in police custody after informing the public prosecutor of the facts committed”, continues -he.
At the end of the police custody, the procedures can be dismissed for insufficiently characterized offense or absence of offense. The suspect may also be presented to a prosecutor’s delegate. The magistrate can then decide to pronounce a reminder to the law or refer him to a court to be judged in immediate appearance.
“Dissuade the demonstrators by fear”
“The mass police custody that has been decided on is for us a real diversion of the judicial apparatus in the service of maintaining order, denounces the general secretary of the Syndicate of the magistrature, Nelly Bertrand, contacted by 20 minutes. The violent police crackdown is intended to scare protesters away from expressing their opposition to the reform and use of 49.3. The objective of the authorities is, she said, to “ensure that people placed in police custody are no longer able to demonstrate for 24 or 48 hours”.
Nelly Bertrand adds that if 283 arrests out of 292 were the subject of a classification without follow-up, it is because “there was not sufficient evidence proving that these people had committed an offense”. Jean-Christophe Couvy, from the SGP Police FO Unit, recognizes that these police custody make “the figure on which the administration and the politicians communicate”. “But behind, we do nothing about it, he regrets. This gives those who have been arrested a feeling of impunity and they think behind it that they can continue. »