The French army against yellow vests

The decision to mobilize the troops on Saturday 23 to stop demonstrations in Paris This is unprecedented since the great strikes of 1947/48. The criminalization of social movements is increasing every year and freedoms are increasingly restricted and violated in France.

The announcement of the reinforcement of "Sentinel device"between 7,000 and 10,000 soldiers, and their deployment against any possible demonstrations of "yellow vests" in Paris it's a historic break in the republican order. The staging of this decision, by the power, further strengthens this appreciation.

The measure was taken personally by Emmanuel Macron and announced in the Council of Ministers. "We can not allow a small minority to violently harm our country and damage the image of France abroad"said Benjamin Griveaux, spokesman for the government. Finally, this decision comes after the public statements of the head of state and the threats of the Minister of the Interior with respect to future protesters after the serious incidents that occurred on the Champs-Elysees last week .

The government decided to organize a face-to-face meeting between the army and the people. "Do you want public order?" This implies to go on the offensive, "can be hurt, even dead," warned a deputy of the majority, quoted by Le Monde.

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The Sentinel operation is an anti-terrorist device designed to protect the population from attack. Its specifications are extremely accurate and its intervention framework carefully defined. Now This anti-terrorist device will be used against a social movement and the demonstrators, without this causing a huge wave of indignation.

In the meantime, the government tried to win the battle of the vocabulary: the demonstrators called them "facciosos", "aggressive hordes", "brutes" and ready to "overthrow the Republic".

Benjamin Griveaux explained that "the Sentinel device will have to secure fixed and static points and allow the police to focus on the movement, maintenance and restoration of order". At the same time, Matignon explained: "As far as possible, the army will not be in direct contact with the demonstrators. It's only a question of releasing police officers and police officers who have been immobilized to date in static guards (Eliseo, Matignon, ministries, large administrations) and, therefore, can not contribute directly to the maintenance of order. "

These observations are only a crude lie, as the thousands of mobilized soldiers will effectively participate in a global law enforcement system. Nothing can prevent face-to-face clashes with the military, especially as yellow jackets travel they are never fixed in advance and often become vagrants in Paris. More seriously, given the four and a half months of demonstrations, nothing can prevent groups of protesters, trapped by police charges or flames of tear gas or LBD (Black Bloks, Yellow Vest), from deciding not to take it officially to the troops. responsible for building surveillance.

"What will happen next? The army will it shoot? It's a police job! In any circumstance, the army can not and should not perform any task of police", protested Jean-Luc Mélenchon Wednesday night at BFM. "They went crazy!" The right-wing deputy Charles de Courson echoed this exclamation when he was outraged by the riot law: "But where are we? Wake up my dear colleagues! It's a total drift! It's pure madness to vote this text! To us under the Vichy regime. "

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The election of Emmanuel Macron is therefore neither an opportunity nor a pragmatism. It is a political decision to further harden the repressive apparatus of social movements in order to better present themselves as the party leader of the order. Until then, the power had been proven in the poor neighborhoods, during the 2005 riots, then under Nicolas Sarkozy (pension reform) and François Hollande (labor law El Khomri).

Christophe Castaner and the Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, gave new weapons to the repressive system: systematic use of LBD (defense bullet launchers), intervention of police groups of the BAC – not trained in the maintenance of the LBD. order – mbadive detentions often illegal, preventive arrests, etc. The use of the troop is part of this increase in violence caused by power. This escalation is accompanied by increasing aggression by the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister. Most of his statements, since Saturday, are intended to prepare the opinion of the accident, that is to say, one or more deaths.

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(Excerpts from the Mediapart article by François Bonnet)

* By Carlos Schmerkin, correspondent for El Destape in France.