While the anger of the police against Christophe Castaner does not weaken, the general secretary of the independent union of police commissioners, Jean-Paul Mégret wants Emmanuel Macron to receive the police unions.
Are you calling for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior?
JEAN-PAUL MÉGRET. This is not the first time that Christophe Castaner has been imprecise, little concerned with our constraints, even downright contemptuous of us. But taking up the rhetoric of the activists who hate us was still unheard of in Beauvau. We have a Minister of the Interior who does not deserve us. Now we refuse to get into the political turmoil: resignation, not resignation. We are there to defend our profession, the police institution which is in danger. What hurts there is that the attacks come from our own minister. And at the highest summit in the state, you don't say a word, you don't make a symbolic gesture. It is a real problem.
Despite everything, it seems that the Minister of the Interior apologized to the police unions he received?
Our union organization must see him at the end of the evening. But indeed it seems that he conceded having made "a mistake" and regretting his words. That said, when you are the Minister of Law, you must keep your words clear. We cannot speak of both suspicion and proven facts, systematic suspension and then planned suspension. It is not legally clear. And all these confusions worry us. The minister talked about neck grabbing. It is a term deliberately used to scare. We are not on a tatami, the policeman is not a judoka. The policeman only tries to intercept people at best with the techniques at his disposal. We sometimes have the impression that our minister does not understand these concepts. However, it has not just arrived. He is looking to advertise because the trend is towards social media and Twitter.
What are you waiting for now?
We want the minister to go back on everything he said. We also ask that at the top of the state, there be a clarification on what is expected of the king. We ask that the president receive us and position himself. During the Yellow Vests crisis and then the management of the Covid, the president and the government needed us, and it is not finished, given the economic and social crisis that is looming. Our republican police must be able to do their job. Contact with our Minister of the Interior is largely broken. And it is not up to us to rewrap it. We interact with people who are able to listen to us. However, when we send letters to our minister, he does not answer you. In fact, I think he doesn't like the police.
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VIDEO. Paris: angry police demonstrate on Champs-Elysées