Toulouse: why anti-pass and climate protesters want permission to go to the city center
A collective of associations and unions asks the prefect to authorize demonstrations anywhere in Toulouse, including in the city center.
Since mid-July 2021, the prefect of Haute-Garonne has authorized demonstrations in Toulouse but… not in the city center. Demonstrators, against the health pass for example, can march on Saturday afternoon, only on the boulevards.
A group of associations and unions, led in particular by the League of Human Rights, Amnesty International, the FSU or FO, asks the prefect, in an open letter, to restore “the freedom to demonstrate at any point in Toulouse, including in the city center, and in particular on the Capitole and Saint-Etienne squares”.
“43 bans” since July 2021
According to the collective, since mid-July, demonstrations have been banned 43 times, including on Saturdays. And according to him, it is not the location of the demonstration that bothers the authorities, but the reason. “The legitimate emotion caused by the war in Ukraine has indeed allowed spontaneous demonstrations, protests, and for some undeclared, in the city center”, notes the collective.
The prefect justifies his order prohibiting demonstrations in downtown Toulouse, taken every week for several months, by “disturbing public order” that occurred during previous processions, “acts of violence within the procession” , and “anarchic wanderings” in town, with “attempts to intrude” into the town hall or the prefecture.
To justify this request for authorization to demonstrate in the city center, the collective cites certain traders, who complain of an “too large” police presence on Saturdays. It would therefore not be the demonstrators, who would be at the origin of this “dark day”, but the police…
An assertion that the Federation of traders, craftsmen and professionals of Toulouse, hastened to deny, in a press release.
The overwhelmed traders
“After two years of yellow vests in the city center, then the Covid period, now the antivax, hundreds of jobs have been lost because of this succession of events”, notes Philippe Léon, the president of the Federation of Merchants. It is therefore not because of the police presence, but of the demonstrators, that the city center is suffering.
The Federation of Traders also thanks the prefect and the director of public security for putting in place measures to protect public order, “to safeguard the safety of our employees, local residents and demonstrators”.