Invited this Wednesday before the deputies and senators to explain the use of force by the police and the gendarmes during the demonstrations against the pension reform or in Sainte-Soline, the Minister of the Interior was strongly criticized .
The Minister of the Interior was heard for more than two hours on the strategy of maintaining order during the demonstrations against the pension reform and at Sainte Soline. For several weeks, the police have been accused of using excessive force in law enforcement operations.
This Wednesday, Mr. Darmanin was expected at the turn by parliamentarians. Faced with accusations of disproportionate use of force, the Minister maintained his line of defense and praised the work of the police. ” Since March 16, we have seen that there has been an extremely strong surge in violence due to the ultra-left “, did he declare.
In opposition, the only support came from the president of the Republicans, Éric Ciotti. ” I believe that the duty of the national representation is to provide unreserved support to the police and the gendarmes “, he said.
On the left, on the other hand, it is believed that the Minister of the Interior is responsible of this police violence. Referring to the case of Sainte-Soline, during which many demonstrators, one of which is always between life and death, and police officers were injured, MP LFI/Nupes denounced “ a human disaster that was staged “. ” It’s 250 wounded among the demonstrators and the police. This disaster is your failure Mr. Darmanin. You will not succeed in justifying your systematic recourse to a strictly authoritarian and repressive response “, she scolded.
The environmental deputy Benjamin Lucas, he targeted the behavior of Gérald Darmanin. ” This [mercredi], it was the Paris-Match audition. You know, the weight of words, the shock of photos. But Mr. Minister, words have meaning. Here, Minister of the Interior, we are in the National Assembly, we must have a serious and democratic debate on the maintenance of order “, he said in reference to the presentation prepared by the minister. And by coming to respond to the deputies, the Minister of the Interior has found a platform to get his message across.
LDH controversy
Part of his message has also created controversy. Mr. Darmanin suffered a new volley of criticism after his response to an intervention by Senator LR François Bonhomme, who called for “ stop funding associations that seriously challenge the state “.
Gérald Darmanin then mentioned the League of Human Rights (LDH), an association founded in 1898 and which has deployed citizen observers in recent weeks during demonstrations to, among other things, document the system of maintaining order. Regarding the NGO, he said that “ the subsidy given by the State”, “is worth looking at[e] within the framework of the actions that have been carried out “.
” Mr. Darmanin, +the actions that have been carried out+ by the LDH for more than 120 years are the defense of the rights and freedoms of all, no offense to you “replied the association in a tweet.
M @GDarmanin “the actions that may have been taken” by the #LDH for more than 120 years, they have been defending the rights & freedoms of all, don’t mind, in particular the defense of the freedom to demonstrate undermined by your policing polhttps://t.co/qs9KnQvLSt
— LDH France (@LDH_Fr) April 5, 2023
Identification of police officers: the Council of State refuses to impose measures on the Ministry of the Interior
In addition, the Council of State issued a decision on Wednesday on the maintenance of order. He refused to impose on the Ministry of the Interior to act to make effective the obligation imposed on the police to carry their identification number in intervention.
Since 2014, police and gendarmes must wear on their uniform an individual identification number called RIO (repository of identities and organization), which makes it possible to identify a civil servant, in particular in the event of slippage. Believing that the police were rarely identified when using “ unjustified or disproportionate force because they were not wearing their RIO, NGOs had seized the Council of State to enforce this rule. For her part, the representative of the Ministry of the Interior replied that this phenomenon was marginal and that reminders of the instructions were very frequent and therefore that it was not necessary to take new measures.
The Council of State accepted these arguments, while noting that the instruction had not made it possible to determine ” the extent of the phenomenon but demonstrated that the compulsory wearing of the RIO had ” not been respected on different occasions », « especially during law enforcement operations “. ” It is up to both the hierarchical authorities and the unit managers to recall and enforce this obligation. “, otherwise ” of a disciplinary sanction “, However, recalled the administrative judge.
A decision which is a disappointment for Me Patrice Spinosi, of the LDH. ” We are faced with an administration that recognizes that some members of the police do not wear the RIO and yet there is a lack of reaction from the administration and the judge. That’s a shame. One could hope that the Council of State would be firmer “, he told RFI.