Gérard Collomb: "We must be able to respond strongly to the rise in violence"

Dryly thanked during the last municipal elections in Lyon (Rhône), Gérard Collomb does not disarm, and defends his record in the city in an interview with the Parisian - Today in France.

Nationally, the former Minister of the Interior considers that the security situation has deteriorated for three years.

How do you assess the action of your successor Gérald Darmanin at the Ministry of the Interior?

Was the term “wild” appropriate?

GÉRARD COLLOMB.

We must not judge by words, but by reality.

Security concerns have become extremely important.

They return to the forefront of the concerns of the French, because the situation has deteriorated in the space of three years.

When I compare what it was when I was at the Home Office and the current situation, I can only see a very strong increase in violence.

In government, we agree that the regal must be brought back to the fore.

When I defended this idea three years ago, people said I was too safe.

We can see today that the French want us to ensure public tranquility, because it is their first freedom.

How do you explain this degradation?

It is society that has evolved.

In Lyon, for example, for a few months now, you can't open a newspaper without seeing an article reporting assaults.

The same is true in many towns in France, not to mention Ile-de-France, which is experiencing a situation of extreme difficulty.

We must be able to respond strongly to this rise in violence.

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And how do you judge the first steps taken by environmentalists in Lyon?

I will be careful not to have a final judgment.

Three months after being elected, we have not yet had the time to make our mark.

On the other hand, I believe that one should beware of definitive statements.

We can also observe a very different style between the president of the Metropolis Bruno Bernard, rather cautious, and the mayor of Lyon, Grégory Doucet, who nevertheless distinguished himself by some peremptory declarations.

It started with his position against the TGV Lyon-Turin, then for July 14, his refusal to welcome the Patrouille de France in the sky of Lyon.

And, more recently, his comments on the Tour de France… All of this forms a whole which contrasts with the idea we have of political life in Lyon.

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Is it a will to break or clumsiness?

No doubt awkwardness.

But too ideological choices should be avoided.

I would advise those who have to make decisions to look objectively at the situation in the city.

With its favorable elements, that is to say its extremely strong economic, social and environmental trajectory in recent years.

And, at the same time, the difficulties it will have to face with the Covid and its economic consequences.

The priority for them should be to prevent economic activity from collapsing in an agglomeration like ours, the leading industrial region in France.

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You are very involved in your new role of opponent.

What role do you plan to play?

It would piss me off if we ruined what has been done over the past fifteen years.

So I try to warn beforehand, to indicate what seems to me to be the right direction and finally to avoid making mistakes.

Is this a way to defend your balance sheet?

I think the Lyonnais are aware of what we have done.

The first thing that those who have not seen Lyon for several years mention is how the city has changed: it has become more active, younger, more beautiful, with an environment, which, whatever we in say, has improved exceptionally.

The balance sheet, in my opinion, defends itself!

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With hindsight, how do you analyze the failure of your camp in the municipal and metropolitan areas?

Was your alliance with the right a mistake?

There were divisions upstream that cost us dearly.

Then, in the second round, we can criticize the alliance we made, but without it, the two districts we saved would have been lost.

We also had in common with François-Noël Buffet the same conception of the development of the agglomeration, on the economic level, on that of a necessary mix in the construction of housing ...

Have you had contact with Emmanuel Macron since the municipal elections?

No, not directly, but I think he has a lot to do now.

I got a phone call from his wife.