SOn all fronts during the summer, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, did not spare a trip or a declaration. In the context of the fight against fires, urban rodeos or the controversy around Imam Iquioussen, the minister has displayed himself and expressed tirelessly, considering, in the columns of the JDDthat “the French expect the Minister of the Interior to say things as they are”.
In an interview granted to the weekly, the minister also reaffirms his intention to “drastically reduce irregular immigration and improve the conditions for the integration of foreigners in a regular situation”. He continues: “We owe it to the vast majority of foreigners who love our country, and want to build their future and that of their children, to be firm with the minority of troublemakers. »
3,000 green police stations “trained in environmental damage”
Gérald Darmanin announces that he wants to launch “3,000 green gendarme posts” in order to “improve the work of judicial investigation”, in particular in cases of arson caused by arsonists, in an interview with Sunday newspaper. “The objective is that, in each gendarmerie brigade, there are gendarmes trained in attacks on ecology. It will be a revolution”, assures the Minister of the Interior to the JDD.
This summer, “there were between 80 and 120 fires per day in our country (…) we have so far carried out 26 arrests of suspected arsonists”, underlines Gérald Darmanin. With these new positions, the objective is to “massively strengthen the resources of the Central Office for the Fight against Environmental Damage (OCLAESP)”, he adds.
This office, created in 2004 and headed by a general of the gendarmerie, was notably cosaisi in July to investigate the great fire of Landiras in Gironde. Its investigators also have the task of fighting against a multitude of trafficking (medicines, waste, protected species, etc.), but also against doping in sport, physical pollution, food scandals or bioterrorism.
READ ALSOFires in France: the flames of Brocéliande will haunt us for a long time
Based in the Paris region, the workforce of OCLAESP has increased with the creation of nine regional branches since 2020: Bordeaux, Guyana, Lyon, Marseille, Metz, Rennes, La Réunion, Papeete and Valenciennes.