Paris, 25 January 2016 — On the 5th February, the French National Assembly1French lower legislative house will consider the law on the constitutionalisation of the state of emergency. Prime Minister Manuel Valls has already announced that he wanted an extension to the state of emergency “until we can get rid of Daesh (fr)“, that is to say, for months or years. Together with numerous organisations, La Quadrature du Net calls for the rejection of trivialisation of the state of emergency and for a mass mobilisation against interference with civil liberties and with the rule of law, notably by demonstrating on 30 January and more specifically by calling MPs.
Two months after the beginning of the state of emergency and before its renewal or insertion into the French constitution and resultant impact on criminal law, more and more organisations, citizen groups, trade unions and individuals have become aware of the risk that this state of emergency represents for our institutions and civil liberties.
To stop the government’s escalation of security measures, which destroys the bases of our institutions day after day and trivialises attacks on fundamental rights, it is urgent to clearly demonstrate our refusal of this obnoxious policy.
La Quadrature du Net has made a number of tools available to citizens who want to take action against the state of emergency, empowering them to call MPs for free to convince them to oppose the government and assume their role as a counter-power controlling the executive power.
Similarly, various organisations opposed to the state emergency call for demonstrations throughout France on 30 January in order to publicly express our rejection of these policies.
La Quadrature du Net calls on everyone to take part to these initiatives and regain control over fundamental political issues that France must face in these difficult times.
As everyone is affected, everyone has the power to show the government that its actions are misguided and that it would be far stronger if it questioned its choices and decided to fight France’s enemies with the weapons of law and civil liberties.
As the government seeks to stifle all debate or explanations, any critical distance or reflection, it is up to us to show that we care for our civil liberties and for a state committed to justice, civil rights and its values!
“The permanent state of emergency must not be allowed to become the norm in France. It violates numerous fundamental rights and undermines the foundations of democracy. La Quadrature du Net has opposed it since it was enacted in November. Today, we count on French citizens to be wiser than their government and to massively mobilise in order to openly express, by emails or phone calls to their MPs and by going to the multiple demonstrations on 30 January, that these excessive security measures and headlong rush into authoritarianism are not what we want for France” states Adrienne Charmet, La Quadrature du Net’s campaigns coordinator.
References
| ↑1 | French lower legislative house |
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