The Chancellery wants to be intractable against the strikers in the energy sector who threaten or who carry out their plan to cut the offices of elected officials in favor of the pension reform. In a memo dated late January sent by the Directorate of Criminal Matters and Pardons (DACG) to all prosecutors, the Justice Department wants prosecutors to apply “specific judicial treatment.”
“Acts of violence or damage to property or services (…) are a negation of our democratic pact”, writes the office of general penal policy.
The Chancellery asks the prosecutors to apply article 433-3 paragraph 6 of the penal code, providing for up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros, justifying that these power cuts targeting deputies identified as favorable to the reform “aim to exert pressure on the vote of our representatives”.
Power cuts
Territorial intelligence reported in a note consulted by Europe 1 that the home of Bertrand Sorre, Renaissance deputy for La Manche, had been cut off on gas and electricity on Monday.
Last week, Bruno Retailleau, the president of the Les Républicains group in the Senate “filed a complaint against X” after being the victim of a power cut in his Vendée stronghold. Last January, the office of the Renaissance deputy for Lot, Huguette Tiegna, located in Figeac, was deprived of electricity during a day of mobilization.
At the beginning of March, the Ile-de-France branch of the CGT mines-energy claimed the “switching” of the Yvelin office of Gérard Larcher, the president of the Senate, to “energy sobriety”. In addition, several thousand residents neighboring Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt in Annonay in the Ardèche were deprived of electricity on March 7th.
“Rapid judicial response”
In addition, degradations of parliamentarians’ offices have multiplied. A dozen have been identified for 48 hours. The Nice office of Eric Ciotti, the boss of the Republicans, was thus vandalized overnight from Saturday to Sunday. The MP filed a complaint.
For common law offences, such as degradation, deterioration or destruction of parliamentary offices, the Chancellery recommends retaining the aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed “with a view to influencing” the behavior of the elected official “in the exercise of its functions or of its mission”. “These facts, when they deviate from the framework of democratic expression and especially when they aim to prevent an elected official from freely exercising his mandate, call for a rapid judicial response and a significant sanction”, concludes the DACG.