At least five police officers officers accused of using violence against yellow vests are to receive a “medal of shame” for their “commitment” to curbing protest violence, according to French investigative website Mediapart. The police officers were nominated by Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron. All are currently under investigation, but none have been formally charged with an offence. Anger at riot police officers’ use of force has fuelled the yellow vest rebellion. The protests, named after the fluorescent safety vests all French drivers must carry in their cars, started in mid-November over rising fuel prices and living costs but quickly morphed into a broader, sometimes violent revolt against Mr Macron’s government, widely perceived as elitist and indifferent to citizens’ needs.
According to Mediapart, two of the police officers praised by Mr Castaner were among those who charged yellow vest protesters in the Riviera city of Nice in March, seriously injuring Genevieve Legay, a 73-year-old anti-capitalism activist.
Mrs Legay suffered a fractured skull and five broken ribs in the clash.
Two other officers on Mr Castaner’s list have been accused of beating up yellow vests inside a fast-food restaurant in Paris, while another is being investigated for his role in the death of 80-year-old Zineb Redouane on the sidelines of a yellow vest protest in the southern city of Marseille in December.
Mrs Redouane died after being hit by a gas canister at her window. She lived in an apartment near to where protests were taking place and was hit in the face while closing the shutters.
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The Interior Ministry responded to the Mediapart report on Thursday, saying that the police officers would be stripped of their medals if these turned out to have been “wrongly attributed”, or if the men were later found guilty of using unnecessary force against demonstrators.
In March, the country’s human rights watchdog, Jacques Toubon, said the tough policing of yellow vest rallies reflected the erosion of civil liberties in France.
Mr Toubon warned the emergency powers handed to police following the wave of terrorist attacks in 2015 had seeped into the common law.
He said: “Like a poisoned pill, the state of emergency that was in place for two years has gradually contaminated our common law, undermining the rule of law as well as the rights and freedoms on which it is based.”
Mr Castaner said in response to Mr Toubon’s accusations and in defence of the police force: “You never use force out of pleasure, but out of duty. I won’t let it be said that you are a threat to rights when you risk your lives each day to ensure rights are respected.”
Political opponents of Mr Macron, namely hard-right chief Marine Le Pen, have also accused the government of putting public order above individual rights in a bid to curb the unrest.
Police tactics have also been condemned, in particular the use of crowd control weapons including controversial “flash ball” riot guns that fire rubber bullets and “sting-ball” grenades used to disperse protesters.
In April, independent UN rights experts said that protesters’ rights had been “disproportionately curtailed” throughout the yellow vest revolt.
The number of yellow vest protesters has dwindled to a few hundred recently from a high of around 300,000 nationwide in November.