Paris protest route approved by court, November 5 strike over wages and youth, Digi Mart USA News (Paris, France): Authorities have gained ground in a dispute over the route for Thursday’s protest in Paris over wages and youth issues. The administrative court on Wednesday validated the alternative route proposed by the Paris police prefecture between Place de la République and Place de la Nation, which organizers had contested.
The intersyndicale, a coalition of unions, along with high school and student organizations, had initially proposed a route from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Concorde, near the National Assembly. The Paris police prefecture banned that route, citing a social context described as “extremely tense,” marked in particular by urban riots in the capital on October 17.
The intersyndicale had asked for the prefecture’s order to be annulled, but the court rejected that request on Wednesday evening. In its decision, the court wrote that the alternative route between Place de la République and Place de la Nation “is neither inadequate nor disproportionate and does not pose a serious and manifestly unlawful infringement of the fundamental freedoms invoked.”
CGT Île-de-France general secretary Vincent Gautheron said the union would call on participants to join the route imposed by the prefecture. “Unfortunately, the right to demonstrate is subject to the availability of law enforcement,” he said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez has asked prefects and security officials to put in place “robust” arrangements for the day, which he described as “sensitive,” according to a telegram reviewed by AFP on Tuesday. He recommended “robust, agile and responsive operational arrangements,” with reinforced police and gendarmerie forces.
Some 70,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized on Thursday for the national strike call issued by the country’s main unions to defend wages and employment. The deployment is identical to that used on October 24 and October 31.
