To each his own shield.
Two weeks before the first round, the candidates for the regional elections on June 20 and 27 are competing for proposals on security, which has become the main theme of the campaign.
And too bad if the regions do not have their own competence in the matter and devote an epsilon budget to it (0.8% of the budget voted in Ile-de-France this year).
The subject is unavoidable since the French placed it at the top of their concerns for these elections ahead of employment, the environment or health, according to an OpinionWay survey at the end of April.
It will also be in 2022, which cannot be ignored by several candidates who would see themselves embarking on the race for the Elysee Palace. "The proximity of the presidential election crushes everything and paradoxically places this sovereign theme at the heart of the regional to the detriment of other competences which are nevertheless essential", analyzes Bruno Cautrès, political scientist at Cevipof, the Center for Political Research of Sciences-Po.
Unsurprisingly, the RN very quickly seized on this burning issue.
Its candidate in Ile-de-France, Jordan Bardella, who chose “The choice of security” as his slogan, made it his only campaign theme and, in Hauts-de-France, Sébastien Chenu erected it as “ first priority ”.
But the right is not left out, multiplying the proposals that can be found from one region to another: enhanced security of high schools and transport, support for municipal police, wide deployment of video surveillance ... “In 2015, I I was insulted by offering video protection around high schools, but in reality, there is a considerable expectation of people ", justifies Hervé Morin, outgoing president (Les Centristes) of Normandy, who nevertheless warns against any" demagoguery ".
Even environmentalists are getting started
Candidates for their succession in Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes and Ile-de-France, Laurent Wauquiez (LR) and Valérie Pécresse (Libres!) Even wish to go beyond and experiment with facial recognition, despite the legal vagueness that surrounds this technology. . Valérie Pécresse also promises "an Ile-de-France agency for works of general interest (TIG)", when the president of LR of Pays de la Loire, Christelle Morancais, plans to appoint a vice-president for security. According to this relative of an outgoing right-wing president, this debauchery of announcements aims to "really mobilize our electorate" while abstention could break records. Mark the spirits, it is also the will of the candidate LREM in Ile-de-France, Laurent Saint-Martin, whose proposal number 1 is to create a "regional police force".
Even if it is approached mezzo voce, security is not bypassed from the left. Threatened by the RN, the outgoing president (PS) of Occitanie, Carole Delga, insists that “the security of our fellow citizens is not negotiable” and defends a “left” value. Seeing the subject rise, it committed in November to equip with cameras by 2023 100% of high schools, coach buses and trains in the region. It also promises to finance mobile police stations for municipal police. In Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes, the PS candidate Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who called her program "The future in complete safety", wants to deploy a brigade of 1,000 agents around high schools. "In this period of tensions in society, we must be present on everything that secures", recognizes the former minister.
Even environmentalists, who do not yet carry security in their DNA, are getting started. Candidate in Ile-de-France, Julien Bayou wishes "to fight against the inevitability of harassment in transport" by filing a complaint "in place of the victims". But also "strengthen the human presence" on the RATP and SNCF networks, like its left-wing competitors Audrey Pulvar (supported by the PS) and Clémentine Autain (LFI). The latter nevertheless denounces "a Lépine competition of far-right ideas" of candidates RN, LR and LREM. "Security rightly worries the French and Ile-de-France residents, but to say that it is the heart of regional policy is to lie to them," she laments.
