A few dozen traders demonstrated Saturday in Toulouse, supported by mayor LR Jean-Luc Moudenc, in response to calls from " yellow vests " to resume the parades on Saturday with the deconfinement, found an AFP journalist.
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The rally, which mainly brought together representatives of merchant associations, gave rise to several tense exchanges with some " yellow vests " and anti-capitalist activists. The latter, for their part, held small scattered regroupings in the city center in the early afternoon, dispersed by large police forces, who proceeded with verbalizations. " We are here to say that it is irresponsible on the part of the 'yellow vests' to demonstrate with the risks of contamination and irresponsible to block the shops, which are on respiratory assistance ", affirmed to AFP Philippe Léon, d 'an association of merchants in the city center.
" The challenge is to let us get a health, let us work, not to scare customers, " said Jean-Marc Martinez, president of the Federation of merchants of Toulouse at the origin of the action. While " yellow vests " called for a return to the streets for the first Saturday of the deconfinement, " it was necessary to have a counter message, " noted Jean-Luc Moudenc, who came briefly to give his " support ".
The police then asked for the dispersal of traders - masked but not all respecting physical distancing - in accordance with a prefectural order issued on Thursday to ban any gathering on the public highway of more than 10 people.
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A demonstration " yellow vest " scheduled for early afternoon in front of the Purpan hospital was also canceled, for lack of guarantees of compliance with health measures, according to the main facebook page of the movement in Toulouse. Sud Santé and the CGT of the Toulouse University Hospital dissociated themselves from this call, after a first joint demonstration on Monday, deeming it " counterproductive " for the claims of caregivers.
In the middle of the afternoon, large police forces remained deployed in the center of Toulouse, one of the bastions of " yellow vests " since the start of the movement, to prevent any regrouping of protesters.
