Detained 95 people
Almost 70 policemen and gendarmes were injured in clashes with participants in the Saturday demonstrations against the government’s Global Security Bill. This was announced on Sunday by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanen.
“Final results yesterday: 95 detainees. There are 67 policemen and gendarmes among the victims, 48 of them in Paris. I express my support to them”, – he wrote on Twitter.
Earlier it was reported about 64 detainees during the Saturday protests, which gathered more than 52 thousand people in different cities of the country. On Saturday night, Darmanen also reported eight law enforcement officers who were injured in the riot control.
Protesters are demanding that the authorities give up Article 24 of the Global Security Bill, which is currently before Parliament. It provides for a heavy fine and a prison sentence for those who post pictures of police officers on the Internet that clearly show their faces and give their addresses and last names. Critics of the document claim that it “violates freedom of the press, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly”. Christoph Castanar, the former head of the Interior Ministry and leader of the political group of the ruling Republic on the Walk party in the National Assembly, has already announced that the article has been withdrawn and will be rewritten. However, the demonstrators now demand its complete elimination from the draft law, which the Senate will have to consider early next year. There are also demands for the removal of articles 21 and 22 from the bill, which provide for the expansion of video surveillance, particularly with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.