Since Nicolas Sarkozy has been at the helm of France, reforms have been relentlessly following one another. Since then, the country has experienced numerous demonstrations. In Nice, as in other cities of the country, three unions (FSU, SUD, and CGT) mobilized on January 21 to defend the public service. The elimination of more than 33,000 civil service positions and ongoing state reforms are in progress. Among these reforms: the new recruitment system for teachers in primary and secondary education. It is planned that recruitment will occur at the master’s level.
During the demonstration, two activists were arrested by police officers. Reason: they were wearing masks representing the face of Nicolas Sarkozy. They were also holding up signs quoting the president. Pierre Bernasconi, a communist regional elected official, was addressed. Two socialist elected officials, Adeline Mouton and Gérard Piel, were manhandled. The Socialist Party federation “condemns an infringement of public freedoms.”
Marie-Laure Legrand, general secretary of the health sector and departmental social action of the CGT, shares the same view: freedoms are being violated. “It’s still dramatic today that we can no longer express ourselves without being confronted by the police forces. We are witnessing a rollback of rights and freedoms that we have had until now.” “The demonstrators did not seek incidents with the police,” she emphasizes. They were there to defend the public service, whose mission is to “meet the needs of users,” specifies Marie-Laure Legrand. But the protests are unlikely to stop there: Nicolas Sarkozy has many reform projects in mind.
