The complacency displayed by the Minister of the Interior for the actions of farmers provokes a strong reaction on the left, where there is a “double standard” with regard to past social movements.
Invited to 8 p.m. on TF1 on Thursday January 25, Gérald Darmanin confirmed with all his attitude a change in strategy at the top of the State. Faced with the anger of farmers, there is no more question of police repression. The mobilized operators “suffer and they have the right to make demands,” said the Minister of the Interior. “Should we let them do it without sending the CRS? Yes, as Minister of the Interior, at the request of the President and the Prime Minister, I let them do it.”
“Farmers work and when they want to demonstrate that they have demands, the government listens,” explained Darmanin. “We do not respond to people’s suffering by sending CRS,” he concluded. A little sentence that made many personalities on the left jump, who were quick to recall all the times where the government had organized a police response to a social movement.
“I almost strangled myself”
“After applauding us at 8 p.m., the caregivers had the right a few weeks later in June 2020 to tear gas, traps, police custody… Our fault, demanding resources for our health establishments… Surely we weren’t suffering enough? !?” The rebellious vice-president of the Assembly, Caroline Fiat, a professional caregiver, protested on X.
“I almost strangled myself”, in turn reacted the boss of the Socialists Olivier Faure. “I pulled myself together by telling myself that it was better than seeing him invent ‘agri-terrorists'”, he quipped, in reference to the term “eco-terrorists” invented by Darmanin to designate activists opposed to mega-basins in Sainte-Soline.
“From ‘at the same time’ to ‘double standards'”
The national secretary of the CGT Sophie Binet called on Gérard Darmanin to “be consistent” by putting an “immediate end to the prosecutions which target a thousand activists” of his union for “absolutely not violent” actions carried out against the pension reform. “Next time, we will hold our demonstrations with tractors, it will be simpler,” she joked on Telematin.
“The blinded yellow vests, the criminalized trade unionists, the torn migrant camps, the young ecologists welcomed with weapons of war… will appreciate it,” commented LFI MP Clémentine Autain, who sees in this turnaround by the government a transition “from ‘at the same time’ to the crudest ‘double standards’.”