Calm returned this Friday morning. Thanks to the work of the technical teams last night, the city of Rennes had regained a barely decent appearance. But everywhere in the historic center, we could see the marks of the rampage perpetrated the day before by a few hundred hooded individuals. The day after a demonstration against the Immigration law, Rennes woke up with a hangover.
Where to start ? Perhaps by the stupidest. In the evening, demonstrators came up with no better idea than to overturn a car parked in a disabled space. “It’s my only means of transportation, so well done,” said the owner. to our colleagues at Rennes Monthly. The little black car is unfortunately not the only one to have been damaged Thursday evening. At least fifteen businesses saw their windows smashed, according to the Rennes public prosecutor’s office. An investigation into damage and theft during meetings was entrusted to the territorial crime division of the police, said prosecutor Philippe Astruc.
Tags everywhere, everywhere, everywhere
Brands like K-Way or Crazy Republic, already targeted during previous demonstrations, were attacked with hammers or stones. Everywhere, the walls of buildings are covered with tags sometimes calling for insurrection, housing for all, anarchy and often accompanied by antifa messages. The facade of the Parliament of Brittany was sprayed with paint and the back of the town hall was covered with tags. ” I am very angry ! These people want to sow chaos. The Rennais are fed up. And I’m fed up. Because we have suffered too much. It’s a scenario that we have already experienced too much in the past,” laments Mayor Nathalie Appéré.
Accustomed to damage during far-left demonstrations, Rennes knows that major brands described as emblems of capitalism are regularly targeted. But this time, the hooded individuals hit anywhere, going so far as to smash the window of a sewing shop, still open to the wind this Friday morning. “I’m disappointed, it’s always the same thing,” breathes a trader in the sector.
Where were the police?
The damage began very early, at the call of opponents of the Immigration law. What raises questions this morning is why hundreds of individuals (450 according to the prefecture) were able to ransack the city center with complete impunity. “For an hour and a half, they did what they wanted! », Testifies a member of the socialist municipality. Mayor Nathalie Appéré goes in the same direction. “I called the prefect when I saw what was happening. They told me: yes, yes, we will intervene. Today I want to understand. The people of Rennes want to understand.”
After the farmers’ demonstration (which did not result in any damage), a mobile gendarmerie squadron was nevertheless still present in the Breton capital. But only a local police intervention company was on site, reduced to witnessing the damage from a distance. “We’re in Rennes, they should know that! We had warned them,” annoys an elected official from the majority who met this morning. According to our information, the CRS 82 arrived during the night to secure the city center and allow the technical teams to clean up. Too late.