The president (DVD, ex-LR) of the Ile-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, notes an alarming increase in insecurity throughout the Ile-de-France.
She also deplores the government's lack of anticipation in its management of Covid-19.
There has been an increase in delinquency - theft with violence, burglaries - in Paris since the summer.
Can you explain it to yourself?
VALÉRIE PÉCRESSE.
All the reports from the field show an alarming increase in insecurity in Paris and throughout Ile-de-France, with several phenomena: criminal networks which, given the Covid, have had fewer resources and clash against a backdrop of turf war.
But also mafia networks of pick-pocketing which, for lack of tourism, specialize in burglaries.
Ile-de-France residents are more often attacked, in the street, in transport, at home, because it is towards them that these mafia networks turn.
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How to cope ?
We have to put in the means to tackle it.
The region supports the equipment of municipal police forces and video protection throughout Ile-de-France.
We installed video protection everywhere in public transport, we financed the recruitment of a thousand additional agents on the transport network.
But, at the same time, the state withdrew 350 national police officers from us!
I call for their return once again.
What else to do in transport?
In New York, Rudolph Giuliani put an end to delinquency in transport by strengthening the control of tickets at entrances.
Security guards and controllers must be able to verify the identity of offenders in transport, the decrees of the Savary law of 2016 have still not been published!
We must also strengthen the prerogatives of private security agents so that they can remove delinquents from the transport network.
Today, they cannot!
The legal arsenal is incomplete and ineffective.
I also proposed a ban on transport networks for repeat offenders, as was done for violent supporters in football stadiums.
In vain.
You also advocate the use of facial recognition ...
Yes!
We are at a very high terrorist risk, but we have no way of using artificial intelligence to spot them when we now have cameras everywhere.
Do not wait for a drama to act!
I ask the State to immediately create an ethics committee to find a fair balance between the imperative of securing transport networks and the preservation of freedoms.
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The city of Paris is waiting for an authorization from Parliament to set up its municipal police, but this would not be done before 2021. The government must accelerate?
Obviously!
Because the city of Paris has the means to equip itself with a real armed municipal police.
Today we have delinquency in the north and east of Paris which is increasingly violent.
For me, the municipal police are the real proximity police.
In Paris, we must also tackle the problem of unaccompanied foreign minors, who are human flesh for mafia networks.
For example, the perpetrators of the pharmacy break-ins this summer were kids between 13 and 16 years old.
Today, the judges place them in closed educational centers, they run away and go back to the streets.
Finally, we must sign return agreements in their country of origin.
Regarding the Covid, the second wave is here.
Has the government taken too long to react?
Today, the urgency is to unite.
The region is doing its utmost to help the government.
But the truth is, there was a lack of anticipation for this second wave over the summer.
Do you fear the reconfinement in Ile-de-France?
It is important to regionalize crisis management.
The regions wish to steer the regional health agencies, to ensure better coordination between public hospitals, private clinics and liberal medicine.
Refinement, I fear, because Ile-de-France is the region most affected by the epidemic.
Unfortunately, I see the hospital more and more overwhelmed.
But, to the maximum of what sanitary conditions allow, I would like us to maintain the activity, because the social crisis that will follow will be dramatic.
If we add up the social plans, the risks of bankruptcy and layoffs in SMEs, we will probably reach a million unemployed by the end of the year.
The region is mobilizing to face it.
The right was very virulent with Emmanuel Macron this week on the Islamist question.
Should national unity be broken?
I'm not trying to criticize, I'm just saying you have to act fast and hard. And that the fight for the Republic will be long and difficult. For the past five years, I have constantly raised alarm bells about the gangrene of radical Islamism. I expect actions and consistency over time.
