One of the three teenagers suspected of having participated in the attack on a police officer on October 1 in Paris on the sidelines of the high school movement was placed under judicial supervision but not the other two, AFP learned Friday from a judicial source. This decision angered the Alliance police union.
Following the broadcast on social networks of the video of the attack, in which the police officer is thrown to the ground with a kick, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation for "violence in meetings against a person holding public authority". A 15-year-old teenager and two 16-year-olds were arrested and must appear before the children's court in Paris on February 23. The children's judge then refused their placement under judicial supervision, leading the Paris prosecutor's office to appeal these orders.
On Wednesday, as revealed by Actu17, the Paris Court of Appeal decided on the contrary to place one of the minors - who did not appear at the hearing - under judicial supervision, with a ban on leaving his home between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., obligation to attend school, ban on coming into contact with the co-defendants and the victim, and obligation for psychological follow-up. The judicial review must still be notified to him. The court also confirmed the provisional judicial educational measure. For the two other minors, until now unknown to the courts, like the 15-year-old, the court confirmed the refusal of judicial review.
On the other hand, she issued a provisional judicial educational measure with a ban on leaving his home between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. for the person suspected of having given the police officer a “brush”, and she confirmed the judicial educational measure already issued for “the person suspected of having filmed and broadcast the scene on social networks”. These decisions aroused the anger of the National Police Alliance union. “Shame!”, he reacted on Thursday on This is the symbol of our judicial bankruptcy!” denounced the organization, before adding: “Impunity kills authority!”
Several dozen principals formed a human chain near Toulouse on Friday to say “stop the violence”, the day after the outbreak, at the Tournefeuille high school, of people who started a fire in the establishment. “We feel that we have crossed a threshold in the escalation of violence. If this continues, someone will die. The colleagues are morally and physically exhausted,” testified one of them, Yvon Manac’h, in front of the Françoise de Tournefeuille high school.
Thursday morning in Tournefeuille, around thirty masked young people dressed in black burst into the high school hall, firing mortars from fireworks, causing a fire in a school premises, without causing any casualties. The establishment in this town of 30,000 inhabitants in the Toulouse metropolitan area, closed on Friday, has been the target of incidents three times since the start of the high school students' protest movement, according to principal Karine Rabiot, who was injured on October 1 after receiving a paving stone on one foot.
“We needed to meet today, to say stop, stop the violence which is unacceptable on the part of individuals outside the school, or not, and very organized,” she lamented. “We are not against the movement, but we feel an uncontrolled rise in power.”
“That’s enough,” said Rémi Poumeyrol, principal of the Clément Marot high school in Cahors, who described “unprecedented violence”, such as mortars and fireworks which required the security of staff and students at his establishment. On deck from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., he confided his “fed up”, his “fatigue” and his “worry”. “The right to demonstrate yes, but intrusions, blockages, ransacking, that is not possible,” he said.
At the origin of the gathering, Yvon Manac’h, principal of the Fonsorbes high school, near Toulouse, regrets “radicalization” and “an unprecedented level of violence”. “We have management staff threatened on social networks, their children are threatened, colleagues pushed around, injured,” lists Yvon Manac’h, also academic secretary of the Union of National Education Management Personnel (SNPDEN).
Highlighting the fact that reforms in education are carried out “over the long term”, he calls on high school students to calm down, while saying he understands “the uneasiness, the uneasiness of young people who no longer believe in the social elevator”.
Under the autumn gray, the south-eastern tip of the immense Place Bellecour, in Lyon, is now set with a strange whitish palisade. The sheet metal plates several meters high prevent access (even visual) to the carcass of the tourist office pavilion, ravaged by flames on October 17 on the sidelines of the demonstration against the high cost of living. Behind, experts are busy determining the structural condition of a building erected in 1852 by the city's chief architect at the time, Tony Desjardins. Their observations remain patchy for the moment, as no one has been able to enter the premises since the fire, due to the risk of the roof collapsing.
In the blaze, the temperature rose to more than 1000° C. “This bowed the roof,” says Christophe Marguin, vice-president responsible for tourism for the metropolis of Lyon, at the head of the tourist office. “The priority was security,” continues Gautier Chapuis, deputy delegate for heritage at the city of Lyon, owner of the premises. Our structural experts will continue the analysis of the building envelope, but it is too early to know what will happen next.” These assessments will be carried out by the city with a company which will be commissioned.
The Minister of Education Édouard Geffray went to a high school in Yvelines on Friday to defend the method which made it possible to develop a list of 200 high schools to be renovated “as a priority”, narrowed down by the Regions.
Accompanied by the president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse, the minister considered it important to “remove any form of misunderstanding” after having discussed with the teams and students of the Jules-Ferry high school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, one of the 200 establishments on this list distributed by the government on the basis of the high school consultation carried out in October.
“These are not necessarily the most dilapidated high schools, as I have seen briefly, but they are the high schools to which there have been the most contributions, in this case relating to the school building,” he stressed to the press.
“What is interesting, precisely, is to compare the number of contributions with reality,” he added, specifying that the Ile-de-France high school in question was “one of the many high schools” in the region “in the process of being beautified” as part of a 2.5 million euro plan.
On Thursday, several regional officials contested the method used by the government to establish this list, some pointing to “false” figures, others to a lack of consultation with the communities responsible for managing these establishments.
“Tomorrow we will go to Concorde at 2 p.m. and we will stay there until 7 p.m.,” announced Benjamin Ball, member of the yellow vest coordination, after an interview with the police headquarters. “We are calling to go. We call for massive disobedience and we call not to take the alternative route imposed by the prefecture,” he added.
“There is the camp of democracy and the Republic, the one in which we are, and there is the camp of authoritarian drift, that of Emmanuel Macron,” said Benjamin Ball, denouncing that the demonstration routes are “blow after blow imposed by the President of the Republic”. “We are going to disobey, and we are going to do it in the very symbolic place that is Concorde,” he explained.
The Minister of National Education, Édouard Geffray, affirmed Friday that prohibiting access to classrooms as some students are doing as part of the high school movement is “illegal”, promising “sanctions”.
“Our students need to study,” insisted the minister while traveling in a high school in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines), alongside the president of the Île-de-France regional council, Valérie Pécresse.
“There are, approximately, 0.5% of high schools which are the subject of blockages this morning, including students who are now, inside the establishments, trying to deny their classmates access to the classrooms. I remind you that this is illegal. […] There will be sanctions,” said the minister.
This figure corresponds to around twenty blocked establishments out of the approximately 3,700 in France, i.e. half as many as Tuesday (48), the day of national call for the blocking of high schools and universities.
There was inevitably a little impatience to rediscover the folklore of the processions this Thursday. Perhaps also a touch of apprehension for Raphaël Glucksmann, he who was chased from the street under a flood of insults two years ago in Saint-Étienne. So, in order not to relive this bad film, an army of socialist elected officials took care to surround the candidate, who arrived discreetly on the Place de la République. However, we did not have to wait long to hear the first whistles ring out in the Parisian parade. Then, the first salvos of invective launched by troops of activists: “Everyone hates the PS”, “Get lost!”, “Shame on you!”, “Sold!”… “Raphaël, president!”, responded in chorus the supporters of the social democrat, gathered behind a large banner.
But these few words of support were not enough to cover the boos which accompanied each of the social democratic candidate's steps. A few meters from him, a sign showed his face embedded in a toilet bowl. Dressed all in black, Raphaël Glucksmann remained impassive, even when a man tried to throw Insoumis leaflets at the socialist delegation. The MEP even continued to wear a broad smile, as if to throw off his detractors. “The subject is the mobilization of workers. If there are political activists who are hostile to our presence, I don’t care. I don’t care!” he said in front of the cameras, before the start of the inter-union movement. This is proof, those close to him believe, that their champion is the victim of harassment and even intimidation from radical activists, who would seek to silence him.
Guest on RTL, Marylise Léon, general secretary of the CFDT, welcomed Thursday's mobilization. “There were more than a million of us yesterday, we now need adequate answers,” she declared, a few days before her reception at Matignon on Monday. It also confirms the demand for an increase of 100 euros in the minimum wage and “real salary dynamics” while the reduction in scales means that “you can progress in a company and have a very low increase”.
“In the private and public sectors, we can no longer make ends meet.” Faced with the employers' already displayed refusal, she denounces a “Pavlovian reflex” and believes that the ball is in their court. The same goes for the government which “can’t wait for the presidential election” to meet their expectations. For her, there is also the question of aid to businesses for which “conditionality” should be reviewed, due to lack of “sufficient evaluation” of their real usefulness.
“We have not crossed the finish line, but we have taken important steps” in negotiations on salaries, assured Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou on TF1. While the executive is due to convene a “social conference” on Monday, he said he was in favor of an anticipated increase in the minimum wage on December 1. “I find that the symbol is important, it shows that we are taking action.” If necessary, the decision should be taken next week to be implemented on time.
As for the amount, Jean-Pierre Farandou mentioned “the 1,500 euros net mark”, deeming it “important”, without committing to a sum, while the unions are demanding 100 to 150 euros net more. The minimum wage today is 1477.93 euros per month.
The Minister of Labor also wants to “act quickly on negotiations in the branches”, while successive increases in the minimum wage have caught up with salaries at the bottom of the scales. A pious wish formulated by the government for several years, without any effect. But this time, “we are ready to act,” promises Jean-Pierre Farandou. “We have a decree which is ready, and which would strongly encourage the branches to raise their minimums”, under penalty of seeing their costs increase.
The inter-union organization behind the day of demonstrations on Thursday will decide on the continuation of the mobilization at the end of the social conference organized on Monday by Matignon, deploring the absence of meetings for civil servants and young people, she indicated on Friday.
“The union organizations repeat it, the only thing that will stop the mobilization is the response to the demands made for several weeks by employees, civil servants, young people and retirees,” write the CFDT, the CGT, FO, the CFE-CGC, the CFTC, the Unsa, the FSU and Solidaires, the day after a national day of social mobilization for wages.
“The inter-union will meet again this Monday at the end of the meeting organized in Matignon and will decide on the follow-up to the mobilization,” write the unions in their press release, also taking note of the fact that the civil servants and young people, mobilized in large numbers, “do not even have an appointment”.
The press release also denounces “the unacceptable obstacles to the exercise of the right to demonstrate” on Thursday, via “bans and route modifications” and “the repression of demonstrations in Toulouse and Lyon”.
Providing “all their support to the injured activists and demonstrators”, the unions are demanding that light be shed on these events.
In a climate still under tension in high schools, the main union of school heads, SNPDEN-Unsa, is concerned to see an unusual number of principals considering leaving their positions or requesting a transfer. Its secretary general, Bruno Bobkiewicz, spoke of “around fifty colleagues” in this situation, speaking to RTL on Thursday, November 5. Although this figure is only an estimate established by the union based on interviews carried out with school heads, it calls out to Olivier Beaufrere, principal and national education and pedagogy secretary.
