Testing areas "without identity checks" in France: never, answers Jean Castex

The Prime Minister's turn to get involved.

Jean Castex solemnly promised this Wednesday before the senators that there would be "no areas without identity checks" in France.

His response to one of the controversies of the moment.

Friday, the Defender of Rights Claire Hédon had indeed recalled on Franceinfo want to launch "experiments" to fight against discriminatory controls.

Among its tracks, testing areas without identity checks in certain neighborhoods.

"We have been asking for experiments for a while because after a while in certain neighborhoods, for some young people, it becomes unbearable," she lamented.

The body headed by the Defender of Rights constitutes "an independent authority" but "it happens that the government of the Republic is also independent of the Defender of Rights", declared Jean Castex during questions to the government in the Senate, "with with all due respect to this institution ”.

During the report of the Council of Ministers at midday, government spokesman Gabriel Attal had already indicated that the “proposal” of the Defender of Rights would not be “followed” by the executive.

Do not "check identity permanently", according to Claire Hédon

Many political voices on the right had already been outraged by this proposal which they likened to the creation of lawless zones.

Just like the majority police unions, or the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.

"All the police are at home in the Republic," he said Monday.

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“I never wanted to end identity checks.

[…] Of course there must be checks when there is a breach of public order, when there is suspicious behavior, when there is a requisition from the prosecutor […].

But that does not mean to control the identity permanently ", clarified Tuesday on Europe 1 Claire Hédon, who assures to have been misunderstood and refuses to speak of" backpedaling ".

In 2017, a survey published by his predecessor Jacques Toubon had shown that a "young man perceived as black or Arab" had during the previous five years about 20 more likely to be checked than the rest of the participants.

In 2009, CNRS researchers concluded that the behavior of the police could be, in certain parts of Paris, likened to “racial profiling”.

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As a reminder, it is to the new Defender of Rights that Emmanuel Macron has entrusted the management of his famous platform for reporting against discrimination.

This Internet application should make it possible to “denounce in a very simple, unique and national way” a control in facies such as discrimination in hiring, housing, promotion in the company, etc.

"When you have a skin color that is not white, you are much more controlled, the head of state said in December in front of the Brut media cameras.

And even more so when you're a boy.

We are identified as a factor of risks, of problems: it is unbearable.

These comments, made in a context of tensions around police violence, were extremely badly passed within the corporation.