The state is asking the Ile-de-France region, chaired by LR presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse, to give up two of its flagship security projects, the financing of municipal police and security brigades for high schools. .
Read alsoPresidential 2022: Valérie Pécresse wants to stay the course in the face of headwinds
The regional prefect sent Valérie Pécresse a gracious appeal on January 18, asking her to cancel three deliberations dating from 2017 and 2021 and relating to the
"security shield"
that she has been developing since her first election at the end of 2015, according to the mail consulted by AFP.
“No text can legally establish the subsidization by the regional council of municipal police equipment”
, writes Marc Guillaume who recalls that
“competence in matters of public order”
belongs
“to the mayor and to the prefect of the department”
.
“The regional council is therefore incompetent to grant this type of subsidy”
, further affirms the representative of the State, based on case law from the Marseille administrative court, which ruled in 2019 that the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region
"did not have jurisdiction to subsidize the municipal police of his region
.
Marc Guillaume also scratches the Regional Security Brigades (BRS), these agents divided into groups of five to secure the interior and surroundings of Ile-de-France high schools, for which
“the legal basis for funding (…) is also lacking »
.
In this he follows the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) which had considered in a recent report that these BRS had
"no legal basis"
, this mission being entrusted to the State which can deploy its mobile security teams (EMS ).
This gracious appeal follows several referrals under the control of legality of the opposition groups PCF and LFI, relating in particular to the opening to regional financing of lethal weapons and drones for the municipal police.
The communist group also challenged before the administrative justice the decision of Valérie Pécresse to finance the drones, while the Constitutional Council recently prohibited the municipal police from using them.
"It's the whole security shield that falls
," said Céline Malaisé, leader of the elected Communists, to AFP.
"Pécresse's credibility on these subjects is beginning to be eroded
," commented Maxime des Gayets (PS).
An initiative "a few weeks before national elections"
In a response communicated to the regional assembly, Valérie Pécresse is surprised
"that, a few weeks before national elections, the regional prefect suddenly takes an initiative aimed at calling into question the security shield".
The gracious appeal comes
"after six years of application of this policy and 27 deliberations transmitted to its control, all validated, and while recent agreements with the State have been signed with the prefect of police"
, underlines Valérie Pécresse.
The LR presidential candidate reaffirms
"that the region is competent to subsidize the municipal police on Ile-de-France territory, to support the equipment of the police and gendarmerie forces"
and
“acting for safety in high schools thanks to the action of the BRS”
.
In a separate response to the regional prefect of which AFP had a copy, the former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy affirms that
“neither the regional council, nor its president have the competence to cancel these deliberations.
Only the administrative courts have this power
,” she adds.
As for the BRS, they
“intervene only at the express request of the head of the establishment, who reports hierarchically to the State”
.
The latter
“does not hesitate to regularly solicit the region for interventions”
, notes Valérie Pécresse.
