The party of French President Emmanuel Macron called on members of the movement and the public to join them in an eight-minute 46-second silence for George Floyd that took place Tuesday.
La République En Marche! (LREM/Republic on the Move) said they would join an “international tribute” to the former Minneapolis resident who was killed by a member of the city’s police force last month and whose death has sparked Black Lives Matter protests and riots across the globe.
Claiming that Floyd was “assassinated” by a Minneapolis police officer, the party called for solidarity in a press release on Tuesday,and the moment of silence took place during Mr Floyd’s funeral, the length of time associated with his killing. The Reuters wires service reported a demonstration took place in Paris on Tuesday in which hundreds of protestors took a knee in silence for eight minutes.
Macron’s ruling party noted Tuesday that “while the situation in France is in no way comparable to that of the United States, we must hear the cry of anger expressed by a large part of French youth in recent days to denounce racism, hatred, and all forms of discrimination and violence”.
They went on to add that they opposed saying French police are institutionally racist, but added: “All manifestations of racism and violence in the police must be firmly condemned and punished.”
France has also seen its own Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd, but French protests have been dedicated to 24-year-old black man Adama Traoré who died in police custody in 2016.
Earlier this month one of the protests in Paris, which saw an attendance of around 20,000 people despite Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures, turned to riots as police were attacked and fires were set. Some even went as far as attacking a police station in the Paris suburb of Clichy.
A report released several days after the riots suggested that the Macron government had expressed major concerns behind closed doors about the possibility of the riots and protests spreading across the country.