Gérald Darmanin denounced on Sunday May 1 “unacceptable violence” committed by “breakers” Venus “disturb the May Day demonstrations, especially in Paris”with dozens of signs vandalized along the route, blocking the progress of the union procession.
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“Thugs come to disrupt the May Day demonstrations, particularly in Paris, by committing unacceptable violence. I am following this with attention”tweeted the Minister of the Interior, assuring his “full support for the police and gendarmes mobilized”.
The thugs come to disrupt the May Day demonstrations, particularly in Paris, by committing unacceptable violence. I follow this carefully.
Full support for the mobilized police and gendarmes, guarantors of the freedom to demonstrate and public order.— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) May 1, 2022
At 6:30 p.m., the Minister of the Interior announced that 45 people had been arrested on the sidelines of the parade, including a person accused of having attacked a firefighter in the Voltaire district. Gérald Darmanin believes that there is “no failures”Sunday, in the maintenance of order.
The first tensions took place only a few minutes after the departure of the procession from the Place de la République. A very mobile group of demonstrators, wearing black clothes, gloves and masks, broke away from the main procession at rue Oberkampf to clash with the police. Further on, at Place Léon Blum, a McDonald’s restaurant was ransacked and its windows tagged with anti-capitalist slogans.
Several dozen bank and real estate agencies, insurance companies and an organic products store suffered the same fate along the way. Street furniture was also damaged, and many trash cans were set on fire.
New clashes between this pre-procession and the police occurred on arrival at Place de la Nation, the final destination of the demonstration, with tear gas canisters responding to projectile jets. The union procession was blocked at the end of Boulevard Voltaire by a cordon of CRS.
The demonstration started shortly after 2:30 p.m. from Place de la République towards Place de la Nation, at the call of the inter-union CGT-Unsa-FSU-Solidaires, joined by the student and high school organizations Unef, VL , MNL and FIDL, with demands on the issues of wages, public services, social protection and ecological transition.