French Protests: W.House Supports Right 'To Demonstrate Peacefully'
The White House said Thursday it supports a global right to protest
peacefully as the French continued to express outrage over President
Emmanuel Macron's unpopular pensions reform and police brutality.
"We
support the right of people to protest and to express their opinions
and to demonstrate peacefully there as we would anywhere," White House
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said when asked about the
situation in France.
French police have been strongly criticized by rights groups for
heavy-handed reaction to anti-Macron protests over the past month.
European
Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic said last week that
police cannot block or mistreat demonstrators just because a few people
instigate violence.
"The sporadic acts of violence of some
protesters or other reprehensible acts committed by other persons during
a protest cannot justify excessive use of force by agents of the
state," she said.
"These acts are also not enough to deprive peaceful protesters of their right to freedom of assembly," she said.
On Thursday Macron said the protests would not deter his pension or water use reforms, which have also sparked resistance.
"There
is contestation over a reform, but it doesn't mean everything else
should grind to a halt," he said near the Alpine village of
Savines-le-Lac.
"We need to continue working," Macron said.
