After several days of major tensions during high school mobilizations, Éric Ciotti and several municipal representatives from the city of Nice met this morning for a coordination meeting. On the agenda, an assessment of actions taken, ongoing tensions, and preparation for a potential resumption of demands early next week.
This morning from 9am, Éric Ciotti and part of Nice’s municipal services met at the Urban Supervision Center to hold a coordination cell. The objective was very clear: to contain the high school mobilizations, blockades and overflows that have been occurring for several days.
Yesterday, 72 people were arrested during the day in the department following the throwing of mortars or projectiles, intentional fires or violations related to carrying weapons. A record since the start of demonstrations at the beginning of the week, which led to this meeting.
« We wanted to set up this coordination cell in a situation where tensions have continued to escalate. The idea is to work hand in hand with all relevant services to manage this crisis situation. The prefect made the decision to close certain institutions and I welcome this position which greatly contributes to the return to calm that we observed this morning », declared the mayor of Nice to begin this meeting.
For him, these overflows are taking on unreasonable proportions because of troublemakers who take advantage of gatherings to sow chaos: « many protesters are vandals, looters, barbarians who are in no way high school students. They came masked and are there to cause destruction. »
In total, 24 high schools are closed on Friday, October 2 in the Alpes-Maritimes, including 10 in Nice. Students are following classes remotely.
Several measures put in place on Friday
To contain the situation, vigilance was maintained throughout the night: « we had threats last night on several gas stations that were targeted to steal fuel to start fires, such as around Square Alphonse Daudet for example. There were patrols every half hour around these stations to prevent looting. Surveillance cameras also played a major role in security », said the mayor of Nice with satisfaction.
He also indicates that on the side of cleaning and collection services, resources were deployed very early this morning so that nothing would be left in the streets or near high schools: « our teams removed 170 garbage bins from public roads so they could not be used as projectiles or barricades. Collection schedules were moved up so that rounds would be completed by no later than 6:30am. Drop-off points around high schools were emptied, whether for glass or clothing. »
In addition to all these precautions, the municipality asked bike-sharing operators to evacuate two-wheelers from the vicinity of high schools so they would not be misused. Several green spaces, such as Square Wilson, were also closed for the day to prevent fires and looting.
High alert for next Tuesday’s demonstration
Although the situation seemed under control, Éric Ciotti remains vigilant about what comes next: « today the preventive closure of ten high schools was very effective, but there is great concern about Tuesday’s demonstration. We know that the far left will use this day to do what it does best, create panic. The movement was inflamed by LFI and the far left, it has been proven, they want chaos. »
We should therefore expect new tensions to resume early next week, particularly on Tuesday, October 6, as the High School Union (USL) and the Student Union are calling to continue their demands during a new day of youth mobilization.
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