Over the weekend, there were regular protests in France against a new bill restricting the right of citizens to take a video of police officers on duty. In Paris, it came to riots again. What explains the new spiral of violence — and how to stop it?
Macron’s troubled presidency
The current unrest is a continuation of a very disturbing trend, “ Der Standard notes:
“No matter how you answer the essentially political question about the causes and culprits of what is happening, one thing is alarming: for two years now, Macron’s presidency has been marked by violence. Yellow vests, demonstrations against planned reforms, and now protests against police brutality-the spiral of violence is spinning faster in France. … In addition, in the context of the unpredictable situation with the coronavirus, the growing tension in society and politics is particularly alarming. It is possible that the presidency of the Makron would end in tears.»
Under threat — the right to peaceful protest
In its editorial, Le Monde points out that violence during demonstrations should end:
“The very right to peaceful protest is under threat. Not only because of the coronavirus pandemic but mainly because of the violence that almost invariably leads to protest marches that result in clashes with law enforcement forces and demonstrations that end in riots. … It is necessary to put an end to this spiral, which provokes the authorities to use authoritarian methods. … First of all, we must stop militarizing the police and erecting an insurmountable wall between the police and the demonstrators, and Vice versa. It is necessary to rely on the strategy of dialogue and de — escalation-a a strategy that is successfully applied by the police forces of many European countries. We are also talking about the need for political de-escalation, about breaking the vertical of conflict interaction, which is often perceived as the norm.»
This is what macron’s democracy looks Like
The brutal attack on Michel LeClair opened people’s eyes, — this opinion is expressed by the weekly Dromos this Aristeras:
“Many police officers received the green light from Macron to take to the streets — and suppress the ‘yellow vests’ protest. For their services, they were rewarded with an incredible law on security, which, among other things, prohibits citizens of the country to remove representatives of law enforcement agencies in the performance of their duties! Now more and more people understand why the ‘parliamentary majority’, which is so far from the people, passes such laws. As the latest anti-government demonstrations and the fury with which Macron’s thugs suppressed them have shown, the era of agreeing with the authorities with certain reservations has sunk into Oblivion. . Zeckler is not just a sad accident, his example is a pattern. Elite and democracy are two incompatible things.»
This is a crisis of state power
The power of the state is being eroded more and more, Le Figaro notes:
“State agencies are powerless in the face of specific threats from the point of view of security, and they try to compensate for this weakness, which cannot but concern us, by zeal in legislative activity. … From the point of view of any sane person, there is a violation of basic civil liberties; the Supreme administrative court has reached the same opinion. … It is not so much article 24 that should be of concern as the crisis of state power that has engulfed the country. A police officer who dishonors his uniform and a demonstrator who discredits the demonstration by his aggressive actions are the most striking symptoms of this phenomenon. However, the state itself is no less to blame for its indecisiveness against the backdrop of daily violence, failure in education — and the erosion of social behavior in society. … If the authority of the state is based solely on decrees and decrees, then in practice this leads to the complete disappearance of discipline.»
