The government invokes a simplification of the criminal response, the left accuses it of opening the way to a disguised offensive against demonstrators, even of preparing for the challenge of the pension reform.
The National Assembly must approve Tuesday, November 22 a bill of programming and orientation of the Ministry of the Interior: 15 billion euros over five years, and measures which seduce on the right but divide on the left.
Already confirmed by a broad green light in the Senate with a majority on the right (307 votes for, including the Socialists, 27 against), Minister Gérald Darmanin hopes for a clear adoption during the solemn vote at the end of the afternoon, after the traditional questions to the government. It had been a good game to call“spirit of harmony”, at the start of this first reading last week. The deputy LFI Ugo Bernalicis had replied to him immediately with a motion of rejection, denouncing the vision of a police “between Terminator and Robocop”. Communists and environmentalists also fought the text in sometimes tense exchanges with the minister.
All three groups are headed for a no vote. Not so much because of the additional funds – half of which must go to digital modernization – as because of the provisions that accompany them. In their sights, the extension of the number of offenses which may be subject to a fixed tort fine, imposed by an agent outside of a trial, for example for obstructing road traffic.
“Insufficient”
The government invokes a simplification of the criminal response, the left accuses it of opening the way to a disguised offensive against demonstrators or climate activists, even of preparing for the challenge of the pension reform. This makes “lean the text towards a dangerous slogan: the problem of the police would be justice”, accuses Elsa Faucillon (PCF). The Socialists start from a position less hostile to the text than the rest of the left alliance Nupes. “There is a bit of discord among the enemy”quipped Gérald Darmanin.
The PS deputies notably welcomed “lots of interesting things” in the bill, but deplored like their comrades on the left the lack of measures to recreate the link between the police and the population. In particular, they obtained during the meeting the principle of creating a “college of ethics” with the minister. “If they respect their local elected officials, they will vote for” the text, believes a Renaissance deputy. Abstentions are also possible within the PS group, which must decide its position on Tuesday morning.
The equation seems simpler on the right and on the far right. “We have never in our history voted against additional means for the police”, recalls the boss of the deputies LR Olivier Marleix. Nevertheless judging the government project “insufficient”, the right-wing elected officials obtained the quasi-doubling, to 3,000, of the places in administrative detention centers for foreigners in an irregular situation. Does the head of the RN Marine Le Pen group see in this text a “small ideological victory”even if its scope is considered limited.
8,500 additional police and gendarme posts
After this vote, deputies and senators will try to agree on a common version of the bill in a joint committee. With the increase in appropriations, 8,500 additional police and gendarme positions are planned over the five-year term. Thus, 11 new units of mobile forces “specialized in rapid intervention” will be created. And, to ensure security in rural areas, 200 gendarmerie brigades.
To fight cybercrime, which is constantly increasing, the text will allow the seizure of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. The bill opens the possibility for certain offenses to file a complaint by videoconference, and toughens the repression of sexist and sexual insults. It also presents a roadmap for the ministry (on digital, training, the place of Frontex in national border control, etc.).
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Its some 450 paragraphs are without legislative value, but have crystallized tensions, in particular because it opens the way to the reform of the judicial police, much criticized by the opposition.