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French lawmaker Gabrielle Cathala has called on Interior Minister Laurent Nunez to resign over police interventions against high school students, as criticism grows over the government’s handling of nationwide protests.
Addressing Nunez in the National Assembly on Monday, Cathala, a member of the left-wing France Unbowed party, cited students who had been maimed, lost an eye or suffered a broken jaw during demonstrations.
Responding to Nunez’s announcement that 10 investigations had been opened into incidents during the protests, Cathala said the priority should be preventing violence rather than investigating after young people had been seriously harmed. She called for a policing doctrine focused on de-escalation and said footage showed plainclothes officers breaking windows and police firing projectiles at students.
“Mr. Minister, you must resign. You have nothing left to do here,” Cathala told Nunez.
Her comments came amid anger over the injury of a 15-year-old student, who lost a hand on Monday when a grenade used by riot police exploded during a demonstration near Auguste-Behal high school in Lens. Béthune public prosecutor Étienne Thieffry said it had not been established whether the teenager picked up the grenade or it had been thrown at him. France’s police watchdog has opened an investigation.
Other opposition politicians also condemned the police response. France Unbowed coordinator Manuel Bompard accused the authorities of choosing to “repress our children rather than listen and engage in dialogue,” while Green politician Marine Tondelier called the failure to direct police to exercise restraint a “serious political error.” Socialist politician Olivier Faure urged the government to review its crowd-control strategy immediately.
A petition on the National Assembly’s website calling for a ban on police use of weapons capable of causing serious injuries at high school protests has received more than 10,000 signatures. Nunez told broadcaster TF1 on Oct. 2 that he had not instructed officers to exercise restraint during the demonstrations, drawing criticism from opposition politicians.
