“It is time to stop this dangerous slope. Let’s not take the risk of a tragedy to regret what has been happening before our eyes for many days. It is with these words that the Medef of Ille-et-Vilaine urged the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to “strengthen the means as quickly as possible” to fight against the degradations committed for several weeks in Rennes. While the protest against the pension reform proceeded almost smoothly in most French cities, the Breton capital has stood out from the start with the systematic breakage of shops and furniture.
Led by radical individuals close to the ultra-left, these “actions” target everything that refers to a form of capitalism: banks, insurance companies, real estate agencies and major international brands have been targeted by thugs. More recently, a clothing store, hotels and a beauty salon were also ransacked by a few hooded individuals. Systematic degradations which make some say that the thugs can act freely. “Thugs, there are. We are facing a mass of young, fast, mobile and rather well organized people, which complicates the intervention of the police, ”recognizes the boss of the police Luca Togni. “But there is no impunity”, assures the prefect Emmanuel Berthier.
To prove it, the prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine relied on the figures of the public prosecutor Philippe Astruc. The latter explained that 44 people had been the subject of legal proceedings for acts committed on the sidelines of the demonstrations: damage, throwing of projectiles, violence or crowds. A figure that did not take into account the 18 people placed in police custody after the March 15 demonstration. But very often, those arrested are released, for lack of evidence. The opportunity for Philippe Astruc to recall that “the rule of law” should continue. “Perhaps there are countries where policing is easier. In France, there is no exceptional justice for the Rennes demonstrations. If we have to convict someone, we have to prove their guilt. That does not mean that there is a weakness in our system, ”assures the prosecutor.
“A city is not watertight”
Faced with the damage affecting the city center, the question of access to the historic center was raised with the authorities. On several occasions since the start of the protest movement, demonstrators have been able to enter in the direction of Place des Lices or Place Sainte-Anne, far from the route filed in the prefecture by the unions. “The strategy has not changed for years. It consists in protecting above all the populations by closing the access to the city center along the quays. But a city is not watertight, you can’t make it hermetic,” assures Luca Togni. But why Rennes? “Because we are facing a nebula of people who want to break up. We have representatives of the ultra-left here. They are more numerous than before since the abandonment of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. They shifted to Rennes, ”says the prefect.
An inter-union rally is announced this Thursday at 6 p.m. in front of the new prefecture of Rennes, before a ninth day of mobilization and a new demonstration announced Friday at 11 a.m. The government’s choice to go through 49.3 will surely not help matters.