Arthur de Laborde, with AFP
modified to
2:18 p.m., May 25, 2023
Emmanuel Macron denounced Thursday the “irresponsible behavior that kills” during the national tribute paid in Roubaix to the three police officers killed by “a driver”, saluting “all those who risk their lives and sometimes lose them to save so many others. “.
“Before the pain of their families, before the pain of their colleagues, before the mourning of the French, silence should suffice. But talking about them becomes necessary to pay homage to their destiny, to show respect and affection to those who serve and protect, and denounce irresponsible behavior that kills,” said the head of state in the courtyard of the National Police Academy in the northern city.
The three police officers posthumously decorated with the Legion of Honor
He recalled that on Sunday, while on assignment, the young police officers Paul, Steven and Manon, aged 24 to 25, had been taken away by “a vehicle that they could neither see nor foresee”, which was driving “against direction, at open tomb”, driven by “an alcoholic driver and under the influence of narcotics”.
But the President of the Republic wanted to extend his tribute to all State agents who were victims of violence, after having denounced the day before in the Council of Ministers a form of “decivilization”. He notably cited the premeditated murder on Monday of a nurse at the Reims University Hospital by a man suffering from schizophrenia and paranoia.
“Tribute to all those who risk their lives and sometimes lose them to save so many others”
Emmanuel Macron lamented that “too many of our public officials” have been “carried away in the exercise of their mission in recent years”, saluting “all those who, at their task every day, ostensibly serve the French”. “Tribute to all those who risk their lives and sometimes lose them to save so many others,” he said.
“The national police officers, the gendarmes, the municipal police officers, the firefighters, the first aiders, the nurses, the doctors, the teachers and so many others, all those who, in the humility of service, take care of our compatriots and protect, deserve respect and consideration,” he insisted.
Emmanuel Macron, who had first spoken with the families, presented the Legion of Honor posthumously to Paul, whose companion is pregnant, Steven, father of a little boy, and Manon who had studied of physio before choosing the policy. The little boy and the unborn child will now be wards of the Nation. The three police officers were transporting a 16-year-old girl who had been assaulted in their car. The girl was seriously injured in the accident.
In the public, in front of a large screen set up outside the school, colleagues and relatives of police officers paid tribute to the three victims. “He had barely started his career as a police officer that it ended like this, it’s dramatic. It could have been avoided at 5 seconds, 10 seconds away”, lamented Charles, Paul’s former colleague. “They are there to protect us but who protects them? It is time for the state to put in place real means for the police,” said Ludivine Decoopman, wife of a police officer from the Roubaix police station, finding that the presence of President Macron is of little importance.
“Introspection”
Emmanuel Macron had upset his agenda to go to this tribute. In the aftermath of a long social and political crisis on the question of pensions, he had already called on his ministers on Wednesday to “work in depth to counter this process of decivilization”. The term, taken up by the far right, in particular by the writer Renaud Camus, cantor of the theory of the “Great replacement”, is much criticized. But the president’s entourage evokes “a search term that is not preempted by one camp or another”.
Its use aims to “launch the debate of a deeper introspection on the ills of society today”, according to a close friend of the head of state. The resignation of the mayor of Saint-Brevin (Loire-Atlantique), Yannick Morez, under constant pressure and threat from the far right, the intimidation suffered by deputies and local elected officials cannot be put “on the same level” as the dramas of Reims and Roubaix, insists the entourage of the head of state, because “they do not have the same cause”.
However, the presidential camp denounces in unison “a society in which violence is indeed exacerbated” and becomes “ordinary violence”, in the words Thursday of the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin did not hesitate to call the driver of the car who hit the police vehicle a “murderer”.
Speaking of “decivilization”, “Emmanuel Macron has once again proven us right”, rejoiced Marine Le Pen for her part on Thursday, also denouncing “morally disarmed” police officers.