Government support for banning the chokehold and disciplining officers suspected of racism have drawn angry pushback, placing President Emmanuel Macron in a bind.
The French police, furious at a popular backlash against them in the wake of the George Floyd killing, have pushed back against government attempts to change their practices and discipline officers suspected of racism, demonstrating Friday in Paris and throwing down handcuffs in front of police stations all over France.
There were also signs on Friday that the government of President Emmanuel Macron might backtrack, as the interior minister met hurriedly all afternoon with police unions to quell the storm of anger.
The police protests, coming on the heels of 10 days of much larger demonstrations in France and across Europe after Mr. Floyd’s killing, have placed Mr. Macron in an especially difficult position.
The tens of thousands of French who turned out to demonstrate in solidarity with American protesters have also demanded that the government address a long history of policing that they say unfairly targets minorities, resulting in harassment, racial profiling, disproportionate arrests and unjustified deaths during confrontations and in detention.
If the government backs down, it would be a slap to the broad protest movement that has arisen here in the wake of the killing of Mr. Floyd across the Atlantic.
But the balance of forces appears to favor the police. Mr. Macron, even more than most presidents before him, is susceptible to pressure from the police — in France, national rather than local — who have protected his government staunchly during the violent social upheavals that have marked his tenure.
At the behest of the government, the police clashed for months with Yellow Vest protesters, quelling unrest that frightened Mr. Macron’s centrist base with batons and rubber bullets.
The police turned out during weeks of protest over Mr. Macron’s effort to change the French pension system. And they enforced the strict lockdown he ordered during the Covid-19 epidemic, handing out thousands of fines to citizens who violated it.
On Friday, police union officials, leaving the meeting with the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said on French television that he had offered them “explanations” and apologies for “communications errors.
