Violence returns to Marseille. After a two-hour demonstration that passed normally, protesters and police clashed at the end of the route, which led to police charges and the use of tear gas against the protesters.
The Aix Gate, near the port, is being transformed into a large barricade, which the protesters are erecting with the metal plates and fences they find on the street. Hooded young people dressed in black and with their faces covered are arriving at the square.
In a period of one hour, the riot police have launched tear gas more than a dozen times, which has caused accelerated exits from the square through the three streets that were not blocked by the Police. The rest of the accesses to the esplanade were blocked by groups of CRS against whom the protesters threw stones, paving stones or other types of trash that they found.
"They are not going to come in here, we have to stay calm and not run," said three young women covered in hijab up to their noses. They were hidden in a doorway on one of the streets that led to the square. Five CRS were waiting at its mouth, against whom kids dressed in black threw stones while the girls shouted at them to stop. "Don't provoke them!" they shouted.
At the other end of the square, the influx of protesters continued its course. The queue of the protest entered the square of Porte d'Aix with its posters and flags of France and Palestine. "You repress us, we resist"; "We are here even if Macron doesn't want to" and "Fuck the Police" are some of the letters that could be read. Shouting ACAB (acronym for All Cops Are Bastards - all police officers are bastards) the protesters entered the square and took their places, climbing on lampposts, windowsills or any elevated surface, to observe the pitched battle unleashed between the most violent protesters and the riot police.
This second day of demonstrations has been marked by the population's resentment against the initial ban imposed by the authorities on all gatherings called in the region for this Saturday. After obtaining the green light from the Prefecture, young people, adults, adolescents and retirees have claimed their right to assembly while singing proclamations against the police and the Government of Emmanuel Macron with visible rage.
The fear that the day would end up getting out of control, expressed by two National Police officers, is beginning to materialize on the streets of the city: "Two things can happen this Saturday: either nothing happens, or the situation gets out of hand." The city has had double the number of police officers, the deployment of soldiers from Operation Sentinelle and restrictions on the right of assembly in order to avoid a new wave of violence like that of the previous weekend.
In Marseille alone there were 100 detainees and 500 establishments looted (16.7% of the national total). "Last weekend we lost control of our city," confess police sources, who admit they do not have enough troops. They are also advancing the number of police officers with which they will reinforce their staff: up to 2,000 troops will be deployed today on the streets of the port city, as promised last Tuesday by the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, during his visit to the capital of the Bouches-du-Rhône region.
After fighting with the regional authorities, who had initially prohibited all demonstrations called for today, pressure from the unions yesterday managed to unlock a permit so that protests could be carried out against the reform of the educational system, the increase in the cost of living and the degradation of public services. Thus, in Marseille, the movement will today go hand in hand with the General Confederation of Workers (CGT), which has called the union demonstration. Finally, the so-called "act II" will take place this Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
As its owners and workers anticipated yesterday, most of the businesses in the Phocaean city have woken up armored. The few establishments in the center that have opened this morning have private security guards at their doors, a controversial recipe that the Minister of the Interior advised to merchants in Paris and that has been replicated in Marseille.
Since the early hours of the day, long lines of Police and CRS (riot police) vans have been deployed, and troops armed with rifles can be seen in the commercial streets. In addition, several fire trucks have taken up position around rue de Canebière.
Army trucks circulate through some of the streets. Although there will be no military patrolling the streets, they will have to monitor the main public buildings to prevent them from being destroyed; specifically, the Prefecture and City Hall, which was raided by vandals last weekend. With the Armed Forces strengthening the security of these enclaves, police sources say, the rest of the device will be able to dedicate itself to exercising control of the streets.
Agent Xavier was released last weekend. He learned about the riots through television and social networks. "Today we are all mobilized," he tells us in front of the Prefecture. It will be one of the most monitored points this Saturday, given that the demonstration is scheduled to parade along it. In his opinion, any reinforcement is "necessary" because in Marseille "there is always a lack of troops" and it will come in handy to control the city. "We cannot rule out that violent people from the peripheries will once again move to the center," he warns.
However, the "main danger" that law enforcement forces face is not so much the groups of vandals, but rather "the gathering of groups with the intention of looting and the intervention of law enforcement forces with a lot of tear gas and other instruments," police sources from the department point out.
