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French PM calls on unions to call off protests

French prime minister, Manuel Valls, has asked unions to call off the scheduled protests against the Labour law reforms that are due to take place next Thursday.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls leaves the Elysee Palace following the weekly cabinet meeting in Paris, France , June 1, 2016.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls leaves the Elysee Palace following the weekly cabinet meeting in Paris, France , June 1, 2016. Reuters
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Security problems

In an interview the French Sunday newspaper, Journal du Dimanche, Valls said that the security situation in France is so uncertain at the moment that the unions should call protests off in the best interest of the country.

“Taking into consideration the violence that has already taken place, the terrible assassination of the two police officers [last week], and the ongoing Euro 2016, the organizers should decide themselves to cancel the protests. It makes sense,” he said in the interview.

He added that the CGT needs to pull itself out of the stalemate it’s in at the moment.

“Protected in our system [of government] is the right to protest. It is also the responsibly of the government to ensure security…however if the organizers of the protests don’t want to carry out their responsibilities, and if the government believes that the protests are creating danger for the forces of law and order and public property, then the government will carry out its responsibility,” he said.

He also indicated that there will be talks between the protest organizers and the police in the coming days to see what can be done.

Ban demonstrations?

Earlier this week, French President Francois Hollande threatened to ban demonstrations, the day after violent protests in Paris over labour reforms that the government vowed to push through regardless.

"At a time when France is hosting the Euro (football tournament), when it is faced with terrorism, demonstrations can no longer be authorised if property and people and public property cannot be safeguarded," Hollande's spokesman Stephane Le Foll told a cabinet meeting last Wednesday.

Earlier, a defiant Prime Minister Manuel Valls vowed to stand firm on the reforms despite the mass protests against them.

"The government will not change a text which is already the outcome of a compromise sealed several months ago with reform-minded unions," Manuel Valls told France Inter radio.

Hollande's Socialist government is trying to push through a set of reforms to the labour market in a bid to rein in down France's stubbornly high unemployment rate.

But critics see the reforms as skewed towards business interests, and strikes and clashes have flared in recent months.

On Tuesday, several hundred masked protesters hurled projectiles at police, who made dozens of arrests.

Forty people were hurt in the clashes, which came with France in the international spotlight as host of the Euro 2016 football championships.

Police said 29 members of the security forces were among those injured in Paris, while three cars were burned on the city streets in the last demonstration.

Valls blasted the troublemakers, who he said wanted to "kill" the police officers patrolling the demonstration and accused the hardline CGT union, which organised the marches, of an "ambiguous attitude" towards those attacking the authorities.

Two further protest days are set for later this month.

 

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