As is often the case during demonstrations, it is in Marseille that Jean-Luc Mélenchon will be this Saturday, not at the Palais du Pharo to meet Pope Francis like many public and political figures but in the street.
The three-time presidential candidate will participate in a demonstration to “take back the streets” with several official motivations: “Against systemic racism and police violence, for public and union freedoms and social justice.”
The case was launched this summer after the death of young Nahel, killed by a police officer as part of a refusal to comply. If LFI and Europe Écologie-Les Verts are among the first signatories, with more than a hundred organizations – including the CGT, Attac and Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion France or the Syndicat de la magistrature – the Insoumis are more going as ecologists. “If our national secretary, Marine Tondelier, called on the party to participate, the call circulated relatively little internally,” slips an EELV deputy.
Caution is required in the parties while some 80 demonstrations are planned in France. Between 4,000 and 6,000 people are expected in Paris departing from the Gare du Nord at 2:30 p.m. Within Nupes, while everyone denounces violence and racism in the police, many refuse the idea that it is a systemic problem. The fear of a drift comparable to the march against Islamophobia in fall 2019 is on everyone’s minds.
Meeting Tuesday in the National Office, the leadership of the PS expressed its discomfort with the slogan often heard during these marches: “Everyone hates the police!”
According to certain internal opponents of the first secretary, a first version of the official text, distributed before the BN, would have explicitly mentioned that if the PS did not sign, everyone was free to participate. They would have successfully obtained the removal of this ambiguous mention. Questioned by Le Figaro, Olivier Faure denies this allegation: “At the PS, we made the choice not to go there and there was never the slightest convolution.” He adds: “Obviously by joining the PS, each citizen can participate in all the demonstrations of their choice and this is what happened with the march against Islamophobia. Everyone is of age and vaccinated.” In addition to the slogans, the defense of the abaya at school by certain signatory organizations in recent days has finally convinced the PS. “The risk is that certain marches turn into pro-abaya manifestos,” regrets a PS executive.
Like the socialists, Fabien Roussel judges that police violence is a “serious subject, causing drama” and which “must be dealt with”. But the boss of the communists also disavows the slogan and the idea of a system. His position sparked a new and violent altercation with the Insoumis. Member of Parliament for Paris and close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Sophia Chikirou posted on social networks a photo of black t-shirts with white letters written: “Everyone hates Fabien Roussel.”
Roussel “does not have the right to caricature the slogans of those who participate,” rebuked the deputy and political coordinator of LFI, Manuel Bompard. LFI is calling for the removal of the 2017 Cazeneuve law on the conditions for exercising self-defense by police officers. “Popular circles want us to repeal the right to kill their kids,” repeated Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the Fête de l’Humanité.