Vandalized vehicles, militants attacked and insulted … What we know about violence against CGT militants

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The Parisian procession of the May 1 demonstration was peppered with tensions with the police. – Eric Dessons / JDD / SIPA

  • The unions have returned to the streets for May 1, despite the Covid-19, organizing demonstrations all over France, some of which are peppered with incidents such as in Paris.
  • In the capital, 21 members of the CGT were injured and a union vehicle vandalized by “a group of individuals claiming to be ‘yellow vests'”.
  • The Paris prosecutor’s office on Sunday opened an investigation entrusted to the territorial security.

Almost everywhere, the demonstrations of May 1 have disturbed thugs. A total of 56 people were arrested on Saturday, including 46 in Paris, said the Interior Ministry which identified 106,650 protesters in France – 170,000 according to the CGT. In addition, six police officers were injured, including three in the capital. In Paris, the CGT was particularly targeted by “a large group of individuals, some of whom claim to be” yellow vests “” and who “used extreme violence against demonstrators,” she writes in a statement.

The union, which was one of the organizers of the rally, deplores 21 injured, 4 of whom are serious. “They all left the hospital but some will have extensive medical monitoring for several weeks because they were seriously injured”, explains Benjamin Amar, union representative at the CGT of Val-de-Marne who was present. Contacted by 20 minutes, the Paris prosecutor’s office indicates that it has opened an investigation into the counts of voluntary violence in assembly and degradation in assembly, entrusted to the territorial security.

“CGT collabo”

However, around 5,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized to supervise the demonstration which started at the beginning of the afternoon from the Place de la République. But very quickly, a few hundred troublemakers according to a police source tried to constitute a black bloc in front of the union procession. Place de la Nation, one of the union’s vehicles was vandalized: the windows were broken and the inscription “CGT collabo” tagged in black. “We have heard sexist, homophobic and racist insults,” continues Benjamin Amar. But also class insults: “The prolos, how much are your merguez?” “

According to him, it was ultra-right activists who attacked them “for 50 minutes”, without the police, who were blocking them, intervening. “The fascists have allowed themselves to do things that we had not seen for a long time,” adds the trade unionist who denounces the way in which the demonstration was managed by the police headquarters and the Ministry of the Interior. The secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, who denounced a “scandalous” moment, also questioned “the securing of the event since the trucks were prevented from clearing the Place de la Nation”, Saturday evening on LCI.

Many convictions

In a press release, the police headquarters defended itself by indicating that the CGT vehicles which were “the target of numerous throws of projectiles by a hostile crowd” had engaged “on the wrong exit” before finding themselves “face to face. at the barre point installed »cours de Vincennes. “Despite the physiognomy that had become correct again and the possibility of leaving the premises by taking the predefined route, the three vehicles remained in place until 7.15 p.m., when they entered the course of Vincennes, when the bridge bar was dismantled by the police, ”continues the police headquarters.

The violence has been widely condemned by union and political leaders. Saturday evening, the Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, condemned “very strongly” the disturbances that have enamelled some parades. “I find it scandalous that thugs, black blocs, wanted to steal this moment from the unions”, she declared on Europe 1. The number one of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, shared on Twitter his ” solidarity ”and deemed“ unworthy of attacking a trade union organization and its activists ”.





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