Mobilization of March 28: roughly the “same security device” as last Thursday planned in Paris, says Laurent Nuñez

Less than a week after the demonstrations, which led to scenes of chaos in Paris last Thursday, what will the new mobilization look like on March 28? Asked about LCISaturday evening, the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez assured that “protests will continue». “For the moment, we have allowed the demonstrations to go on until the end (…) and this will be the case again on Tuesday”he said, emphasizing the commitment of the police to guarantee the good performance of the mobilization.

While the unions obtained a strong mobilization last Thursday, with more than a million people in France, including more than 100,000 in Paris, Laurent Nuñez indicated that the security system on Tuesday will be almost the “even” Tuesday. That is about 5,000 police and gendarmes in the capital. “It will be very sturdy and very solid to be able to respond to black blocks“, he assured.

«We’ll see if we go back to this figure“, which will be reassessed on Tuesday according to the forecasts of general information, he however specified. Among the demonstrators last week, nearly 1,500 “radicalsplaced at the head of a procession had come to fight in Paris, according to the count of the Ministry of the Interior. These riot professionals are all experienced in urban guerrilla techniques.

From Sainte-Soline to Paris

«Yes, it was more complicated on Thursday“, recognized the prefect of police, “because we had a much larger number of black blocks». More “we have contained the black blocks (…) they are not the ones who win the game”, continued the former Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior. “We are here to protect demonstrations, to protect trade unions and allow them to exercise their freedom of expression“, he defended. If he expects a mobilizationstill very difficult to manage“, he and the authorities in charge of security are”very serene“, he still assured.

While violence broke out again during a demonstration against mega-basins in Sainte-Soline on Saturday, the prefect made a link with the thugs of the capital. “The radicalized elements who are in Sainte-Soline will probably be in the Parisian processions, within the black blocks, to make them degenerate“, did he declare. “Our duty, our job, is to repress (…) these radicalized individuals who are in front of the procession and who want to disrupt it».

Laurent Nuñez also defended the work of the BRAV-M, a unit particularly decried after a recording reporting intimidation by police against young demonstrators. The prefect of Paris seized, Friday, March 24, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN). Despite this recording and the various images of muscular arrests circulating on social networks, the BRAV-M are doing a job “formidable“, he insisted.