Internal investigation in the French police after the diffusion on social networks of a video in which an officer is seen punching a protester, who collapses to the ground.
The events filmed date back to yesterday.
Since yesterday evening, the left has been denouncing "violent arrests" by the police, forcefully demanding the release of demonstrators unduly detained.
In the video that has gone around the web, BFM TV asked prefect Laurent Nunez a few questions, who announced that he had asked for an investigation to be opened.
The events took place in Paris, in rue Saint Antoine, near the Bastille, during the "spontaneous" demonstration against the pension reform.
The video was posted on Twitter at 11.43pm by a journalism student who has been following the demonstrations for days.
An officer from the Brav-M police group is seen delivering a violent right punch to the face of a protester, who falls to the ground and remains motionless.
On BFM, Nunez explained that he had ascertained that the protester in question had opposed the detention of an individual who had damaged a newsstand that can be seen in the video.
The demonstrator, however, is hit by the policeman as he moves back "and if you observe this sequence - the prefect admits - the policeman's gesture seems out of place".
The forces of order, police and gendarmes, "have a duty to be exemplary": said the French premier, Elisabeth Borne, on the day when lawyers, magistrates and politicians of the transalpine left denounced police violence, in the framework of the spontaneous demonstrations against the pension reform that have been inflaming France since last Thursday.
"In the face of this violence (against the pension reform, ed.) I want to pay homage to our security forces who ensure the safety of the demonstrations. And I repeat, they have a duty to be exemplary and they are aware of it, policemen and gendarmes alike"
. declared the premier during the question time to the National Assembly, assuring that "every report" on possible police drifts "
Yesterday evening 287 people were arrested, including 234 in Paris, during the fifth evening of spontaneous demonstrations against Macron's reform.
In the face of criticism from lawyers, magistrates and leftists, the prefect of Paris, Laurent Nunez, assured that "there have been no stops
unjustified.
I can't let that be said." Meanwhile, French youth opposed to the reform have deployed new collective street action tactics in Paris, inspired by Hong Kong protesters, to be more fluid and unpredictable during street demonstrations. "We are 'be water' (be water) like in Hong Kong... In any case, let's try to be," revealed Romain, a student who demonstrated last night in Paris, adding: "We have to renew our actions to keep up the pressure" against the pension reform.
And in the meantime, today the municipality of Paris has decided to activate a "crisis unit" to manage the current situation in the Ville Lumière, in the aftermath of the fifth evening of spontaneous street demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron's pension reform and with over 9,000 tons of
rubbish still on the street due to the garbage collectors' strike which has been going on for two weeks.
Already activated during the health crisis linked to Covid-19 or due to episodes of strong summer heat, the crisis unit will meet every day, with the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, her councilors and the district mini-mayors to follow the evolution of the situation and "guaranteeing the continuity of public services", reads a note released by the Parisian municipality twinned with Rome.
Hidalgo, who supports social protests against the government of Emmanuel Macron, "calls for calm
and urges the government to withdraw its reform and to start dialogue with the social partners". Today, the waste left on the street in Paris is stable at 9,300 tons against 9,600 tons the day before yesterday. The peak was reached on Friday, in the twelfth consecutive day of the garbage strike
, with over ten thousand tons of waste left abandoned on the ground in the four corners of the capital.
