Demonstrations against the pension reform, clashes in Sainte-Soline … Does France have a problem with its doctrine of maintaining order?

After weeks of escalating violence in the protest movement against the pension reform, as well as during the demonstration against the “mega basin” of Sainte-Soline (Deux-Sèvres), the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin must explain himself on the question of the maintenance of order, Wednesday, April 5, before the law commission of the National Assembly. Since the use of article 49.3 to pass the pension reform, many incidents have erupted on the sidelines of the demonstrations. If the Minister of the Interior points to the responsibility of “breakers” and of “the ultra-left” in the rise of tensions, many are alarmed by the brutality of the security forces, like the Council of Europe, which reports a “excessive use of force” In France.

The clashes reached a milestone in Sainte-Soline, Saturday, March 25, where 47 gendarmes were injured, according to the count of the authorities. On the demonstrators’ side, the organizers reported 200 injured participants, 40 of them seriously. Among them, two were plunged into a coma and one still is. The Defender of Rights took up their cases.

As Thursday marks the eleventh day of mobilization against pension reform, franceinfo examines the criticism leveled against the policing system in France, which has nevertheless been a model for decades.

“A period of de-escalation” between 1970 and 1990

To understand how France works in terms of policing, you have to go back to 2010, when nine European countries came together on Sweden’s initiative to find ways to ease the often tense relations between protesters and security forces. order on the Old Continent. For three years, these countries “develop de-escalation strategies, still employed today”, explains Olivier Fillieule, professor of political sociology at the Institute of Political Studies at the University of Lausanne and researcher at the CNRS.

France chooses not to participate in the initiative. First of all “because it had not experienced catastrophic episodes of law enforcement, as during the G8 in Genoa (Italy) in 2001 [où de violents affrontements avaient opposé durant trois jours police et manifestants, faisant un mort et plusieurs centaines de blessés]or in England with the hooligans”, says Olivier Fillieule. And also by pride, slips the seeker, “Because there was a ‘we’re the best’ side to it, we pretty much invented policing, so we don’t have lessons to learn.”

It is true that at that time, France enjoyed a certain reputation in this area, built on its management of the demonstrations of May 68. After these events, “a period of de-escalation in the maintenance of order is beginning in France, which will last throughout the period of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s”explains Vincent Milliot, professor of modern history at the University of Paris 8 and specialist in the police. “We accepted a little disorder to avoid throwing oil on the fire”he continues.

“We relied on specialized forces, always with the idea that we had to intervene as late as possible and avoid direct contact with the crowd.”

Vincent Milliot, historian

at franceinfo

The demonstrations were then supervised by the mobile gendarmes, created in the 1920s, and the CRS, founded in 1945, all trained specifically in maintaining order. “Even today, they have maintained a very high level of professionalism”emphasizes Olivier Fillieule.

A turning point in the 2000s

However, this model shattered in the early 2000s, first for political reasons. The 1995 strike against the pension reform paralyzed France for three weeks, pushing more than 2 million people into the streets, the threshold from which Alain Juppé had warned that he would withdraw his project. What he did.

“Since that date, governments have clearly stated that they will no longer yield to the street”, comments Vincent Milliot, mentioning all the same the exception of the first employment contract (CPE) of Dominique de Villepin, in 2006, abandoned after a strong mobilization in the streets. “But apart from this setback, the position is: ‘the street should not be the law.'”

“The refusal to hear the demonstrations has led to the need to strengthen the methods of repression. This is why we are witnessing a brutalization of the maintenance of order.”

Olivier Fillieule, sociologist

at franceinfo

The year 2005 was also marked by three weeks of riots, which set the French suburbs ablaze. This period greatly influenced police officials, including the Ministry of the Interior. “We started treating the protests like urban riots“, explains Vincent Denis, lecturer in modern history at the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne. “It was in those years, and in particular in 2008 under the impetus of Nicolas Sarkozy, that we saw the appearance of the very mobile groups of the BAC [brigade anticriminalité], then the famous Brav-M ten years later. In both cases, they are intervention companies whose job is not to maintain order”, argues the historian.

Brav-Ms without a “culture of law enforcement”

Since then, these units have been almost systematically mobilized. Blame it on the lack of sufficient numbers among professional law enforcement, whose numbers have gradually declined, in part because in the late 1990s, “Social conflict has diminished, and the maintenance of order was essentially limited to the management of supporters during football matches”, says Vincent Milliot. But also because like all public services, police officers have been subject to a budgetary diet, points out Olivier Fillieule.

Problem: the BAC, like the Brav-M, do not have the same training, nor the same hierarchical culture as the gendarmes and the CRS. “The police and gendarmerie forces in maintaining order have no room for initiative. They have military training and obey the orders of a hierarchical chain”, explains Olivier Fillieule. While the work of mobile police units works on the initiative of the official. “They are trained in ‘jumping over’, in rapid arrest. They are good at their usual tasks, but do not have the habit, nor the culture of maintaining order”.

“Brav-M’s job is to grab guys and put them down. They use violence. That’s all that can’t happen in law enforcement.”

Olivier Fillieule, sociologist

at franceinfo

These units find themselves facing dense crowds, and have an extensive arsenal, one of the most extensive in Europe. They are notably armed with the much maligned defense ball launchers (LBD). “No European police have this equipment in the maintenance of order”, notes Vincent Milliot. And the lack of training of the police officers who use them is pointed out.

“The BAC uses LBDs when they are very little trained in the use of this weapon”relays Emilie Schmidt, program and advocacy manager for Acat-France, an association for the defense of human rights. “Some are shooting five meters, which is completely illegal, not to mention shooting directly at the face,” specifies Sebastian Roché, research director at the CNRS and author of Policing in democracy (Grasset, 2016).

A surprising use of arms

Emilie Schmidt also regrets the explosion of the use of grenades of all types, mainly disencirclement and tear gas. “We are asking for their abandonment, because they are extremely dangerous. They can cause very serious injuries, for life”, she explains. A railwayman has thus lost an eye after being hit by a disencirclement grenade during the March 23 demonstration in Paris. In 2016, a union activist had been blinded under the same conditions, during the demonstration against the Labor Law. As for OF F1 type offensive grenades, it was not until the death of Rémi Fraisse, in Sivens (Tarn), in October 2014, that they were definitely prohibited in a law enforcement context.

This recourse to arms in demonstrations is far from being systematic among our European neighbours. “The English do not wear them at all, during or outside the demonstrations, except for a very small part of the police, comparable to the Raid in our country”, illustrates Sebastian Roché. Similarly, in Norway, Iceland and Germany: the police are not armed. “Without any negative effects being observed”underlines the political scientist, who explains that these countries apply, as much as possible, “a doctrine of negotiation”.

“The choice of a font that scares”

Beyond the arming of the police, the researchers interviewed by franceinfo point to the very strong interdependence between the government and the police. “The instructions given vary according to the political objectives. There is therefore every chance that these instructions will be counterproductive in terms of maintaining order”, slice Olivier Fillieule.

“This permanent intrusion of political power into considerations that should remain technical is the disease from which France suffers.”

Olivier Fillieule, sociologist

at franceinfo

These direct instructions from the power are reflected in particular in the field of judicial repression, with the multiplication of placements in police custody, as was the case during the so-called “wild” demonstrations after the use of 49.3 to have the reform of the retreats. Lawyers, magistrates and politicians considered these arrests as “arbitrary”, without any proof of guilt. The Defender of Rights also sounded the alarm on this subject. “It was already arrived during the ‘yellow vests’, with massive preventive arrests, preventing citizens from demonstrating before they had even joined the procession”says Vincent Milliot.

These practices have the consequence of maintaining a certain distrust of the population vis-à-vis the police, also linked to the lack of independence of the IGPN and the IGGN, responsible for investigating the excesses of the police and gendarmes. “The control of the police is carried out by itself. It is only in France that it works like that, it is absurd”, tance Olivier Fillieule. “We have chosen a police force that scares, for 15 or 20 years”regrets Vincent Denis, who sees “the symptom of a great democratic malaise.”