For the government, it is a question of responding to the violence of minors. Traveling to Viry-Chatillon (Essonne), a town marked by the death of Shemseddine, severely beaten near his college, Gabriel Attal provided an initial legal response.
“The Minister of Justice will issue a criminal circular so that, when you are attacked because you do not respect religious principles, an aggravating circumstance
is
considered, as is the case when someone is attacked because they has a particular religion,” the Prime Minister indicated.
This Friday, Éric Dupond-Moretti confirms that this text “will be released in the coming hours”. “We attack someone because they are Jewish, this discrimination is an aggravating circumstance but we attack someone because they did not observe Ramadan for example, it can be retained (
as an aggravating circumstance
) but that is not always. This is what I will remind prosecutors in this circular,” explains the Minister of Justice on RTL.
In Viry-Chatillon, the Prime Minister had promised a rapid response from his government, before the summer, to the “addiction to violence” of part of the youth.
VIDEO. Gabriel Attal denounces “Islamist entryism” in schools, during an interview on BFMTV
“Attacking evil at the root means continuing our merciless fight against separatism, and particularly Islamist separatism. Increasingly, youth violence takes place against a backdrop of contestation of republican values, contestation of secularism and violence takes place on this ground. This is not acceptable,” he said.
“There’s no question that a young girl wouldn’t be free to walk around there without a veil if she wanted to.” No way a young boy can't eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Everywhere in France, the only law that applies is that of the Republic,” he added.
The “minority excuse” on the table
A “contract of commitment” to respect the authority and values of the Republic, including secularism, must also see the light of day between parents, establishments and students. Failure to comply with this contract could lead to sanctions, or even referral to court in the most serious cases.
The Minister of Justice specified this Friday that 50,000 boarding school places are “available” to allow adolescents to “extract them from an environment which can be criminogenic”. To supervise these adolescents “we will have soldiers, police officers, gendarmes, educational and judicial protection of youth” listed Éric Dupond-Moretti, speaking of a “benevolent authority”. It’s about “giving a helping hand” to “overwhelmed mothers”, he summarized.
The “mitigation” of the “minority excuse”, a legal principle which means that a minor aged 16 to 18 is punished less severely than an adult, is also on the table. Éric Dupond-Moretti underlines that the government wanted “a real consultation” on the subject which “was not a joke”. “Nothing is excluded, everything is on the table,” he says.