«I don’t want a distinction which I attached to a government so violent.»Cyril Dion, the producer of the documentary Tomorrow has announced that he refused the medal of knight in the Order of merit in protest against the violent intervention of police forces on Friday. Police officers leaving the protesters Extinguishing the Rebellion, who were blocking the bridge of Sully, Paris.
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«I felt anger and indignation when I saw these peaceful activists sitting on the ground getting gas and drag along the ground while it is strictly forbidden», he says in Figaro, to the effect that an advisor Emmanuel Macron had called to inform them of the opening of an investigation on the behaviour of police officers. «What would have happened if nobody had done anything, if Greta Thunberg, for example, had not shared in the video?», angrily there.
The writer explained to have been appointed to the rank of knight of the Order of merit in November 2017, on a proposal from the secretary of State for the ecological Transition Brune Poirson. But he had not carried out the administrative procedures to obtain the decoration, despite reminders from the institution. «I’m not a big fan of the decorations. I found it incongruous to accept it,» says Cyril Dion. This video has convinced him to refuse the medal permanently. «It was the shot too much,» he explains.
«there is a drift»
Because, according to him, these acts are involved in the continuity of other police violence against demonstrators and journalists. «Of course I’m sensitive because it is a subject that I follow closely, but it’s been a number of months that I have been gnawing away at my brake by telling me that there is a drift,» said the former director and co-founder of the movement Hummingbirds.
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The environmental activist acknowledges that «this government is more than the previous ones». «But we are in a context that demands that we do even more», he adds. The commitment of Cyril Dion in the fight against global warming is not new. In December, he was part of the Deal of the century, a campaign to sue the government. But her fight also pass by his artistic creations, such as his film Tomorrow , César for best documentary in 2016. «I need to create. We are sensitive beings and irrational, you need to be affected and moved by it. Advocate this is not enough. But it is necessary to be able to raise your voice.»
Sea-Watch and Extinguishing the Rebellion : the legal entity before the law ? – Look on Figaro Live