France: Police assault leaves protesting worker in coma

Ferez was assaulted by the police while demonstrating at the Place de la Nation, the end-point of Saturday’s protest march in Paris.

Ferez, a member of the Sud-PTT union, is in critical condition. He is at the neurological unit of Paris’s Henri-Mondor de Créteil Hospital, suffering what the hospital described as “severe cranial trauma and intra-cerebral traumatic lesions.” Union official Bernard Allaire told Reuters, “His situation is worse than alarming. No one is allowed to see him except his immediate family.”

Witnesses report that the worker sustained the injuries after riot police (gardes-mobiles) charged a section of the demonstration at the Place de la Nation. They say Ferez was stomped on the head by the police. Onlookers have also reported that police refused to call for medical assistance, even as the injured man lay prostrate on the ground for 20 minutes. Other demonstrators appealed to firefighters in the area, who drove Ferez to the hospital.

Ferez’s condition is a tragic testimony to the ruthless policy of the Gaullist government and the French ruling elite as a whole, which are determined to impose the CPE as a major step in the destruction of all forms of job protection and basic social benefits. On Monday, French business leaders demanded that Prime Minister Dominique Villepin carry through on his pledge to impose the CPE, despite massive popular opposition and the growing wave of protest. Their statements followed a meeting between the prime minister and twenty four of the country’s most powerful corporate executives.

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