The French Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, has announced the mobilization of 13,000 police and gendarmes overlooking the general strike day of this Tuesday in which they are expected massive mobilizations of protest against pension reform.

He “unprecedented device”in the words of Darmanin, includes 5,500 active police officers in Paris, although there will also be significant contingents in Lyon, Rennes, Nantes, Dijon and Bordeaux, where riots are expected.

Darmanin has appealed to recent violent incidents. “Since March 16, 891 police officers and gendarmes have been injured, 47 in particular last weekend. In Sainte-Soline we have counted 200 individuals known by the intelligence services for their radicalization”, he indicated in reference to the riots in the town of Sainte-Soline, where thousands of environmentalists protested against the agricultural dams.

According to the minister, some of “these people present in Sainte-Soline this weekend could join the demonstrations in Paris and carry out actions in the cities of Lyon, Rennes, Nantes, Dijon and Bordeaux” with the objective of “burning France down with blood and fire”.

“90 units of mobile forces will be deployed, a level of mobilization never reached before,” he stressed, before appealing “to the essential proportionality of the use of force.” “I ask the police and the gendarmes not to respond to any provocation. These provocations are only the act of those who wish them harm,” she warned.

In addition, it has made a solemn appeal “to all the elected representatives of the Republic to condemn with the greatest firmness and without the least ambiguity the violence committed against the police.”

As for Sainte-Soline, Darmanin has denied that there were delays or impediments in caring for the injured protesters, as denounced by the organizers. “Every time they called us, we sent doctors, particularly from the national gendarmerie, to provide first aid. The gendarmes and the doctor who accompanied them were harassed several times and very aggressively to prevent them from reaching the scene,” he assured. .