The government of Elisabeth Bornedossier
The Prime Minister has denied the bans on demonstrations surrounding her trip to Indre. This is however contradicted by the prefectural decrees.
New displacement, new prefectural decrees, new lie. This Friday, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, visited several municipalities in Indre. A trip accompanied, like those of other members of the government in recent weeks, by various demonstrations by opponents of the pension reform.
While Thursday, April 20, confiscations of saucepans by gendarmes on the sidelines of a trip by Emmanuel Macron caused a stir, various lawyers and members of the opposition denounced the ban on various demonstrations by prefectural decree. The rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon even spoke of a violation of constitutional freedoms. Asked about the subject, the Prime Minister denied the bans on demonstrations. This is however contradicted by the prefectural decrees.
Questioned by a journalist on the accusations of Jean-Luc MelenchonElisabeth Borne responds: “There is not a ban on demonstrations and moreover there are people who demonstrate, and I think that once again, Mr. Mélenchon is in the caricature. The prefect issued an order to prohibit driving in a street in Châteauroux, I do not think that is a questioning of the constitutional freedoms of our country.»
As several jurists have pointed out, it suffices toopen the decrees of the prefecture of Indre, soberly called “demonstration ban order – Buzançais”, “prohibition order – Châteauroux” and “prohibition order – Valençay”. Because if the Prime Minister speaks “an order to prohibit driving on a street in Châteauroux”the document rather proscribed “any demonstration, crowd or protest rally” in 13 streets, 3 avenues, two squares, a roundabout and a boulevard in the town of just under 50,000 inhabitants. Not to mention Buzançais and Valençay, two small towns where the same ban was pronounced for several of their roads, as well as an entire perimeter in the center of Buzançais.
The very nature of this type of decree restricting demonstrations, used in particular during the travel of members of the government, is criticized by many lawyers and jurists. Appeals against the latter are increasing, but the very short time between the publication of the decrees and their end of application (which is the period during which the administrative tribunal can suspend them) makes it difficult to take concrete action, the administrative tribunals having no no time to decide, as was the case, for example, for the decree taken this Thursday in the Hérault. Even if it is not systematic, a decree of the prefect of Paris prohibiting night demonstrations having been suspended on April 1st.
