The security of places of worship is of concern to the Minister of the Interior.
As he did at Christmas time, Gérald Darmanin sounded the mobilization of his prefects throughout France to strengthen the surveillance systems around churches, but also Jewish and Muslim places of prayer.
His telegram to all the police and gendarmerie authorities thus targets, from March 28 to April 4, the
"Christian holidays of Palm Sunday and Easter"
, the
"Jewish feast of Passover"
, but also the
"month of Ramadan of April 13. until May 12, 2021 ”
.
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The minister's harangue to his senior subordinates is intended to be unequivocal:
"The persistence of the terrorist threat weighing on our country requires the maintenance of strong vigilance on a general level but also more specifically vis-à-vis places of high character. religious, ”
he wrote.
He invites his senior clerks, in each department, to focus on
“gatherings and services which traditionally concern large audiences in certain places and at certain times and therefore constitute targets with strong symbolism”
.
For Christian and Jewish worship, the host of Beauvau advises the prefects to ensure a
"limitation on the number of accesses to places of worship"
, to
pay "particular attention to vehicles"
parked near meeting places, and to strengthen the presence of the police at the arrival and departure times of the faithful.
By associating the municipal police.
"Special attention"
Gérald Darmanin also recommends to engage
"in the most sensitive or emblematic places and buildings at the time of gatherings and celebrations"
of the soldiers of Operation Sentinel, deployed since the attacks of January 2015 to deal with the terrorist threat.
The host of Beauvau and his teams keep in mind the tragedy of October 29, where two faithful and the sacristan of the basilica of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption in Nice were killed with a knife by Brahim Aouissaoui, a Tunisian 21 years old.
Without forgetting the ordeal of Father Hamel, brutally murdered by two Islamists, on July 26, 2016, in his Saint-Étienne church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen.
An 86-year-old parishioner was also seriously injured that day.
For Muslim worship, the minister demands from his troops
“special attention”
,
“daily”
, throughout Ramadan,
“from sunset, corresponding to the breaking of the fast”.
According to him, this moment of the evening is
"potentially likely to generate large gatherings of people on public roads and around mosques, despite the restrictive measures to come and go linked to the state of health emergency"
.
He also wants
“the implementation of enhanced vigilance and security measures”
on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr feast, which marks the end of Ramadan, on May 12.
Gérald Darmanin is obviously not reluctant to go into detail, imprinting his style both directive and close to the men on the ground.
He even invites them to inform him of any difficulty encountered in applying the instructions.
"He takes a liking to the job,"
comments a former director general of the national police.
