Strike of November 5: justice validates the Republic-Nation route proposed by the Paris police headquarters

The administrative court validated on Wednesday the alternative route proposed by the police headquarters concerning the demonstration for wages and youth on Thursday in Paris between the Places de la République and de la Nation, contested by the organizers. While the inter-union proposed a route going from Bastille to Concorde, the police headquarters banned this route on Wednesday, on the grounds that “this demonstration takes place in an extremely tense social context marked in particular by the urban riots that occurred in the capital” on October 17.

The inter-union association, which had requested the annulment of this decree, was rejected on Wednesday evening by the courts. “The proposal for an alternative route between the Places de la République and de la Nation (...) is neither inappropriate nor disproportionate and does not constitute a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the fundamental freedoms invoked,” the court wrote in its decision.

“With all responsibility we are going to call for people to join the route imposed by the police headquarters,” responded Vincent Gautheron, CGT Île-de-France general secretary, to AFP. “Unfortunately, the right to demonstrate is subject to available law enforcement,” he lamented. A little earlier, the CGT representative was surprised that the police headquarters argued for its refusal of the Bastille-Concorde route for security reasons by “imposing an alternative route” that it had refused them “a fortnight ago for security reasons”.

“Robust operational devices”

The prefect of police Patrice Faure had justified this ban in his decree by highlighting “the infiltration of violent and determined elements” as well as the risks of disturbances to public order “in a national and international context of very high threat”. For the mobilization day of October 17 alone, 855 people were arrested in Paris and more than thirty stores were ransacked or looted.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez asked prefects and security officials to provide “robust devices” for this day which he describes as “sensitive”, according to a telegram consulted Tuesday by AFP. It recommends the establishment of “robust, agile and responsive operational systems”, equipped with reinforced police and gendarmerie personnel.

Some 70,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized on Thursday in view of the national call for strike launched by the country's main unions to defend wages and employment. A system identical to that put in place on October 24 and 31.