The Antifascist Action (AFA) and the Paris-Banlieue et du Movement interluttes indépendant (MILI) groups have released details of police action to prevent a rally taking place in parts of Paris, emergency powers invoked following the November 13, 2015 Paris attacks.
The police documents obtained by the groups and released on Twitter, reveal that the police are allowed to prevent demonstrations in the four districts of Paris where the demonstrations have traditionally occurred, the 6th, 7th, 14th and 15th arrondissements. It bans demonstrations from 1100 to 2000 on May 17, when the protest was due to take place and places a night-time restriction on la place de la République, the central rallying point in recent weeks.
Michel Cadot, the Prefect of Police of Paris, invoked Article 5 of the law on the state of emergency, which allows him to:
"prohibit the stay in any part of the department anyone seeking to interfere in any way with government action […] Rallies [against the reforms] regularly spill over [and become violent], which has been noticed on several recent occasions during protests against the proposed reform of the labor code."
Toxic Labor Reforms
French President Francois Hollande is trying to get the economy moving by loosening the French Code du travail – some of the tightest working conditions in Europe that have forced employers not to take workers on, preferring to use short-term and zero hours contracts instead.
Hollande wants give employers more scope to lay-off workers and cut costs and allow some employees to work far longer than the current 35-hour week. Other reforms include a cap on severance pay for workers dismissed by a company. The current uncertain cost of laying-off workers mean that companies are risk-averse to doing so, leaving them less flexible and – in some cases – less productive. Opponents say the reforms would undermine workers’ rights on pay, overtime and breaks.
The issue has become particularly toxic among students and young people – where unemployment is high – who believe the new reforms would make it easiest for employers to sack them on a last-in-first out basis in a recession.
The reforms were put to parliament’s lower house, where Hollande survived a vote of no confidence. The bill would normally pass to the upper house of the French Parliament, where the Republicans have a majority, but Hollande's Prime Minister Manuel Valls won cabinet approval to invoke the rarely-used Article 49.3 of the constitution which allows the reform bill to bypass parliament.
This immediately brought cries of condemnation from opponents and triggered riots in Paris, Nantes and Bordeaux.
It is not yet known if the demonstration on May 17 will go ahead in a different place.
