Riot police will be able to use the controversial stun grenades again in the more than 500 planned demonstrations in France on October 17 "if serious acts of violence occur in major cities," warned Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who met with prefects from across the country on Tuesday ahead of the critical day of student protests and the anticipated return of the "yellow vests."
Stun grenades (which emit a loud sound that disrupts orientation) had been temporarily banned after last week's incident in Lens, where a student lost his hand while trying to throw it back at the police. Nuñez announced their suspension hours after an urgent meeting convened by President Emmanuel Macron, who called for "ethics and proportionality" in the face of student protests.
"Police officers and gendarmes will be able to use all intermediate weapons at their disposal", Nuñez declared to France 2, in response to criticism of police repression in the protests. "And that includes everything from tear gas grenades to the rubber bullet launcher (LBD) in a context of extreme difficulty, when the situation turns into urban violence or riots."
The abusive use of rubber bullet launchers in protests, which has been linked to a student losing an eye, has also been questioned by human rights groups who have criticized the "police repression," with over 9,000 arrests and a thousand injured in the last three weeks (930 police officers, 147 teachers and school principals, and over a hundred students).
"This no longer seems like a student movement, but rather a movement of urban violence," Prime Minister Sébastian Lecornu declared on Thursday, stating that 200 out of the country's 3,700 high schools are experiencing "episodes of persistent violence often at the hands of individuals unrelated to the schools."
"It is essential to clearly distinguish between urban violence and legitimate demands", Lecornu emphasized. "Lately, it has become difficult to hold a demonstration in this country without violent groups infiltrating, especially from the far left and occasionally from the far right."
Meanwhile, the police union Alliance has decided to denounce the Government "for endangering the lives of others". "After the empathy shown towards the protesters and the constructive approach of the head of state, we now face vague instructions, contradictory orders, and empty rhetoric," the police union denounced in a statement. "On the ground, the reality is very different: the agents are left isolated, betrayed, and abandoned, exposed to violence and retaliation."