How to restore calm in difficult neighborhoods? According to a poll for Europe 1 and CNews, 62% of French people are in favor of this use in difficult neighborhoods. Asked about this possible appeal, the five candidates for the LR nomination – Michel Barnier, Xavier Bertrand, Éric Ciotti, Philippe Juvin and Valérie Pécresse – put forward various proposals to achieve the Republican reconquest, in the third debate of the Republicans on Europe 1 and CNews.
A safe no matter what
Éric Ciotti first advocates a “safe whatever the cost”, which evokes the possibility of having recourse to the army. If the soldiers are not specially trained for the maintenance of order, the deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes relies on Operation Sentinel to justify the call for these additional forces in difficult neighborhoods. “The intervention must first be that of the police”, he specifies. “I hope that there will be massive police interventions that reconquer these territories, and that all forces will be mobilised.”
“The army is already involved in public security,” notes Michel Barnier, who joins his colleague Éric Ciotti. “We need to have mobile units in at least 40 or 50 cities to maintain security,” continues the former Brexit negotiator for the European Union, who suggests armed municipal police in cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. Michel Barnier also proposes a referendum on the restoration of military service to achieve “republican integration”
“Operations punches”
On the other hand, Xavier Bertrand is firmly opposed. “Security forces first”, asserts the president of the Hauts-de-France region. “They know how to do it. They need instructions,” he says, including the survey on the preferences of the French. “What the police and the gendarmes lack are clear instructions and an up-to-date criminal response. It’s the Republican response, the response of the State”, estimates Xavier Bertrand, who claims that the president of the Republic “is aware that he is the head of the armies and the security forces”.
“It’s a question of will”, assures Valérie Pécresse, confident with her proposal to solve the problems in difficult neighborhoods. “Fear must change sides. And for that, we must set examples, punch operations” in the areas of Republican reconquest, advances the president of the Ile-de-France region. “We have to make punch squads, where there will be police, customs, judges, and the army in support,” she says, questioning the security and freedoms law.
“I am not at all in favor of the intervention of the army. The army is made to do something else”, slice Philippe Juvin. “If we think of the army to maintain republican order, it is because we consider that the police no longer have their place, no longer have the means. I want to give them the means they should not not be deprived”, affirms the mayor of La Garennes-Colombes, in the Hauts-de-Seine, also favorable to the armament of the municipal police.