Demonstration of November 5: Justice approves the course in Paris between Republic and Nation

The authorities have just marked a point in the standoff over the route that the demonstration for wages and youth will follow this Thursday in Paris. The administrative court validated on Wednesday the alternative route proposed by the police headquarters between Places de la République and de la Nation, contested by the organizers.

The inter-union and high school and student organizations had initially proposed a route going from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Concorde, not far from the National Assembly.

An “extremely tense” social context

The police headquarters banned the organizers from the route 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 therefore 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,” reacted Vincent Gautheron, general secretary of CGT Île-de-France. “Unfortunately, the right to demonstrate is subject to available law enforcement,” he lamented.

Laurent Nuñez anticipates a “sensitive” day

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, for his part, asked prefects and security officials to provide “robust arrangements” for this Thursday, 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 increased police and gendarmerie personnel.

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Some 70,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized this 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.