“For those who have not understood it, the electoral campaign has just started”. This April 29, in a voice memo “not to be broadcast” (sic), Yoann Maras, Ile-de-France manager of the Alliance National Police union, delivers his instructions to a group of members. Through a message of almost five minutes, the trade unionist intends to mobilize his colleagues for a demonstration on the Place Saint-Michel, in Paris, four days later. Its purpose: to protest against the indictment for “voluntary homicide” of a policeman from the security of the City, a unit of the Prefecture of police.
Between April 24 and 25, on the Pont-Neuf, in the capital, the latter fired on a vehicle after a refusal to comply, killing the driver, one of the passengers and injuring a third. Accustomed to the spotlight, Alliance sees it as an opportunity to get the union talking. A few months before the professional elections, the opportunity is too good to miss. “Indeed, it is linked to a news item, to a colleague who is in deep shit, but the ascendancy and our position must be taken from now on”, he orders.
The view of the police
Maras takes “quite tough” and even “a bit radical” positions. Those of the union, repeated during the demonstration by Fabien Vanhemelryck, its general secretary: “Self-defense and presumption of self-defense: this is what we have been demanding for more than ten years in the face of an ultra-violent society.” Media stunt, shock statements and controversial positions: in this case, Alliance reproduces its usual modus operandi. A police union whose line has “hardened”, even “radicalized”, in recent years, according to several union competitors.
With its more than 30,000 members – around 44% of voters in professional elections for the national police – the organization is one of the big machines of French police unionism. With a main weapon: its media strike force. In a country where the police institution does not express itself – or little – on the legal cases in progress, Alliance quickly understood the interest of speaking first. An important detail, especially when members of the profession are implicated, as in the Pont-Neuf affair. “They impose their narrative, reports Christian Mouhanna, director of the Center for Sociological Research on Law and Criminal Institutions. Each time there is a news item, they rush to give the version seen by the police.” Without explaining that this presentation is subjective.
The minister’s direct line
Initially, if Alliance was able to establish itself in the landscape, it was thanks to its acquaintances with politicians. From the Sarkozy years, the organization, founded in 1995, pampers its networks in Place Beauvau. The union has a double advantage for him. First, that of the weight of the representatives on the careers of the police officers: they influence advancement and transfers. Then, that of an ideological proximity: Alliance then counts at its head Jean-Claude Delage, former RPR militant, known to be yours and yours with personalities of the UMP, like Christian Estrosi or Eric Ciotti. In 2015, he was even a candidate for municipal elections on the list of Jean-Paul Gaudin in Marseille. Privileged links which translate into a ministerial position particularly favorable to the police, in accordance with the demands of Alliance. “From Sarkozy, the ministry no longer disavowed its troops, rewinds Olivier Cahn, professor of criminal law at the University of Tours and specialist in policing policy. Including in the face of a court decision .”
Alliance has also made a specialty of establishing a direct relationship with successive ministers. A relative of former minister Gérard Collomb says: “When Gérard arrived at the Interior, I had warned him that the unions were going to ask him for his telephone number to have a privileged contact. I told him: “Don’t Don’t give it to them. At the end of the first meeting, they all had it. Organizations know how to use their smartphones. Their requests quickly become a priority in the Minister’s agenda. “I remember Gérard receiving an SMS from a union just before taking off by plane, and hearing him ask that we take care of it quickly”, continues our interlocutor.
“The way to operate, it was blackmail”
Armed with this influence, Alliance leaders have not hesitated since the mid-2010s to feel that they are the equals of senior ministry officials. “I remember their arrogance. They made it a point of honor to address everyone in Beauvau, except the minister and the director general of the police, recalls our former ministerial collaborator. When we opposed with them on one point, the next line was invariably: “Are you not happy? We’re going to deal with the minister!” And you could be sure that he received a text message in stride.”
And it works. Beauvau especially does not want to be in delicacy with his troops. This excitement only increases during the demonstrations of the yellow vests. Alliance knows it, and uses it. Less than a month after the scenes of chaos on the Champs-Elysées, in November 2018, the union put pressure on the executive by launching the slogan “Close the police stations”. He asks “all police officers in France to only go out on call” urgently. Alongside two other unions – Unit SGP-FO and Unsa Police – the organization is received in Beauvau by Christophe Castaner, and obtains an exceptional bonus of 300 euros to reward the police officers for their investment during the days of mobilization of yellow vests. “Alliance succeeded in persuading the executive that it was only maintained thanks to the police. The deal was simple: if you want your troops to be held, you have to pay. This negotiation was folded in less than 48 hours , notes Olivier Cahn. Since then, the way of working has been blackmail.”
Brutal communication
A former DGSI sighs: “The deep interest of society in relation to its police is not something that matters a lot to them. We are still in ultra-categorical claims.” In public, this brutality translates into very offensive communication, even more meaningful after the election of its new general secretary, Fabien Vanhemelryck, in April 2019. “We wanted to toughen up our tone, saying out loud what the others were thinking low, assures the number 1 to L’Express. It was necessary to say things in a strong way, being more direct than before. Alliance therefore multiplies the virulent declarations. “Yellow vests demonstration – the police are not presumed innocent but already found guilty!” can we read in a leaflet published in June 2020. In this document, the union does not hesitate to threaten Beauvau in barely covered words: “National Police Alliance is not afraid to warn our authorities […] we will be attentive to any arbitrary decision and we are prepared to react if necessary.” With L’Express, the boss of Alliance assumes: “In our society, to be loved, you have to be feared. This is perhaps what we have been missing so far.” The union has just filed a complaint against Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who called him “factious”.
A trade unionist, member of the office of a competing organization, is annoyed by this permanent show of force: “Vanhemelryck, it’s not even union hardness, it’s excess.” One statement, in particular, caused a stir: “The problem of the police is justice”, thundered Fabien Vanhemelryck before the National Assembly, in May 2021, during a rally organized by the police unions. “He took us all hostage when no one agreed, plague a member of the police, figure of another union. It was a com stunt, that’s for sure, but that’s the problem: they only work with that. It’s the strategy of permanent buzz.”
With results that remain difficult to analyze. “Alliance has succeeded in uninhibiting the words of the cops”, defends for example Christophe Kulikowski, a journalist mandated by the police to organize and co-animate the show of force of the National Assembly. Its emergence tells above all of the hardening of the profession, whose vote has drifted to the right of the right in recent years. According to a study by Cevipof, the political research center of Sciences Po, carried out in 2021, 60% of police officers intended to vote for the National Rally in the next elections. The figure was close to 74% taking into account only active police officers.