Parliament must definitively adopt on Wednesday a sharp increase in credits for the Ministry of the Interior, a victory for Gérald Darmanin, in a period of relative majority, but also a revealer of irreconcilable positions with part of the left.
The Senate must validate in the afternoon the agreement reached with the National Assembly, which will be worth approval by the Parliament of this Law of orientation and programming of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi).
8,500 police and gendarme posts
The minister is already boasting of a “historic” law, which adds 15 billion euros over five years to the credits allocated to his ministry, more than half of which for the modernization of services and digital transformation.
Read alsoSecurity: the Assembly largely adopts the Interior Ministry's programming bill
Some 8,500 police and gendarme posts are to be created.
As France prepares to host two major sporting events - the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games - 11 new units of mobile forces "specialized in rapid intervention" must be deployed.
And, to ensure security in rural areas, 200 gendarmerie brigades will be created.
Difficult for the Senate, with a majority on the right, to refuse such an investment.
It is moreover the upper house which had inaugurated the examination of the text in first reading in October, and had very widely adopted it (307 votes for, 27 against), with even the support of the Socialists.
At the Palais Bourbon, the government had once cherished the hope of winning the support of the PS deputies, but they chose to abstain.
In the final reading last week, 365 deputies voted for the text - majority, right and extreme right - and 102 against - environmentalists, communists and rebellious.
LR deputies voted for an
“insufficient but necessary”
law , when the RNs insisted that without justice reform, its intentions would remain a dead letter.
Antagonistic visions
A smooth legislative journey but not without opposition.
In sometimes tense sessions in the Assembly, the rebellious, environmentalists and communists railed against the minister, clashing their visions of maintaining order.
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“I offer you an agreement: you say as much as you want that we are anti-police but in exchange you withdraw the LBD (defense ball launcher), the practice of traps, tear gas at the bottom of the balloons”
, has launched the LFI deputy for Isère Elisa Martin.
“I offer you an agreement: I remain your scapegoat but you finally put video surveillance cameras to protect your population in your city”
, Grenoble, retorted Gérald Darmanin.
The debates were also largely punctuated by a mano a mano between the minister from LR, and the one who would undoubtedly have occupied the seat in the event of a Mélenchonist victory in the presidential election, the LFI Ugo Bernalicis.
L'Insoumis accused Gérald Darmanin of wanting
"Terminator and Robocop"
police officers , instead of
"necessary local police"
.
His opponent repeatedly reminding him of the defeat of Jean-Luc Mélenchon:
“Anti-security, you lose your cool.
You are a bad player”
.
The bill also toughens the repression of sexist and sexual insults, provides for measures against cybercrime and the possibility of filing certain complaints by videoconference.
Retreats and PJs in the debate
It significantly widens the scope of criminal fixed fines imposed by an agent outside of a trial, in particular to offenses of blocking traffic or trespassing in educational establishments.
The left sees it as a possibility of repression of social movements, a controversial point a few weeks before a mobilization that it wants to be massive against the pension reform.
Another sea serpent during the sessions, the future and much decried reform of the judicial police, which will be carried out by regulatory and not legislative means: it is only mentioned in a long roadmap annexed to the government project, but has aroused many of amendments.
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It is a question of placing all the police services of a department under the authority of a single departmental director of the national police, dependent on the prefect.
The joint commission bringing together deputies and senators agreed on safeguards.
"It has no normative value"
and
"you can do with it what you want"
, scolded the socialist Roger Vicot.G
Gérald Darmanin will again meet before Parliament in early 2023 for his much more sensitive immigration bill.