“Some say that I have changed… But it is the context that has changed!” Elected member of the 2020 green wave, Pierre Hurmic assumes his turnaround in a “worsened” security context. Opposed since the start of his mandate to arming his municipal police, like the mayors of large environmentalist and left-wing cities (Paris, Lille, Rennes, Grenoble, Nantes), the mayor of Bordeaux finally changed his position. notice. From now on, around fifty agents will be armed with semi-automatic pistols.
On the one hand, the measure sows unrest among the Bordeaux municipal majority (EELV, PS, PCF, civil society). On the other hand, the councilor is held up as a model of pragmatism by right-wing opponents of left-wing municipal executives, some of whom remain opposed to the measure. “Like climate change, the first victims of insecurity are the most disadvantaged populations. This fact should shake up and challenge left-wing elected officials,” he responds to L’Express.
L’Express: You are the first environmentalist mayor of a metropolis to decide to arm part of your municipal police force. Have you broken a taboo?
Pierre Hurmic: A mayor must not have a taboo subject. At the helm, we constantly combine our ethics of conviction with our ethics of responsibility. It is therefore out of responsibility that I made the decision to partially arm the municipal police. My opposition criticized me for having delayed too long and they are right, but they themselves never arbitrated it when they were in power. I spent months consulting mayors of Annecy, Grenoble, Lyon, Saint-Denis or Strasbourg – whether or not they had armed municipal police officers – sociologists, lawyers, and my own majority . The context has changed, the increase in violence and insecurity in the streets of our cities is undeniable.
I was also faced with difficulties recruiting municipal police officers even though I had created positions. To strikes, too (Editor’s note: last June). They assured me that they sometimes intervene in places of violence “with fear in my stomach”. Unarmed, they are often first responders at sites of increasingly violent and armed attacks. I am their employer: it is my duty to ensure that they can practice their profession in optimal safety conditions. All this has made me evolve on the question, the apprehension of this question cannot only be theoretical.
Have security circumstances fundamentally changed the ideals of the environmental activist that you were yesterday? Has reality “right-minded” you?
No, because I don’t think that the rearmament of the municipal police is a marker of right or left. Moreover, we cannot reduce the question of security to this single measure. The subject is complex, and I strive to be a pragmatic mayor and above all concerned with the right measure. In this case, the supporters of all or nothing – those who consider that it was necessary to arm the entire municipal police force and those who consider that it should not be done – will be disappointed. For me, security is a public service; when you are on the left, you are very attached to all public services, including this one. Like climate change, the first victims of insecurity are the most disadvantaged populations. This data should shake up and challenge left-wing elected officials. This is my case.
However, this is the feeling of a significant part of your municipal team following your announcement. Some speak of “renunciation” in relation to your past positions… Why such discomfort?
It is an ethical debate that goes through each of us. I claim to have been clearly against it at the start of my mandate. It’s not a decision we take lightly. During the 2020 municipal elections, I carried the slogan “The world is changing, let’s change Bordeaux”; I think the world has also changed in this area. And you have to be very candid to ignore that we live in an increasingly violent society. Indeed, this was widely discussed within my municipal majority, I myself was shocked by this question, but I cannot answer it by closing my eyes. I therefore made this decision knowing that it does not satisfy all the members of my team: I am not asking them to approve it, but to understand my responsibility as mayor.
Is arming municipal police a guarantee of public safety?
I don’t know if it’s a guarantee, it’s more a risk that I’m taking. Our policy will be regularly rigorously evaluated, and the municipal council will be involved in it. For a very long time, Bordeaux was spared from delinquency phenomena, until 2015. Since I took office, the increase in delinquency has slowed down. According to studies, the majority of Bordeaux residents feel safe in their city. But I am not satisfied with this result. My security policy, in this overall plan, is based on two legs: a prevention policy, and another to combat delinquency. I have budgetarily increased the number of municipal police officers, the same for the number of mediators. I also reinforced the video surveillance system. I was one of the rare left-wing mayors to have signed an integrated security contract with the State. Currently, I am fighting with the Ministry of the Interior to obtain a permanent CRS company in Bordeaux, and I have a meeting soon with Bruno Retailleau.
Near Mediapart, Eric Piolle, mayor of Grenoblehas also regretted about you that a part of the left has “let go of its fundamentals” with the desire to “show credentials” to its adversaries…
Each mayor is the master of his own home, and responds to issues based on who he is. I met these mayors, I spoke to Éric Piolle, and obviously we don’t have the same understanding of things, but that’s life. I will not allow myself to comment on the way in which the councilors understand their situation on the ground, in the same way that I would not appreciate it if they did it for me. But I will not let it be said that there are left-wing policies and right-wing policies: I do not want a Manichean debate on this area. The right to security is a real right! Lots of people on the left were interested in the question. I am not completely unfamiliar with the subject: I am a lawyer, I have been an activist in associations for judicial control and delinquency prevention. I have my vision which is mine, and which evolves.
The Greens regularly find themselves accused of eccentricity on security issues. Do you understand it?
If the image is a cliché that has a hard core, I’m happy to break it. I have the particularity of being a mayor who is little involved in the national life of my party. My professor in higher education, the Bordeaux philosopher Jacques Ellul, affirmed that “a party man was only a part of a man”. I am not a part of a man, I am very attached to my independence, to my freedom, and I am a full-time mayor. I of course warned Marine Tondelier of the implementation of this measure: she was very respectful.
Overall, how can the left escape the eternal accusation of lax security?
I find this trial to be Manichean lax and full of clichés. But it is important not to give them a helping hand. It is time for the left to reconcile itself with security issues, because there is a progressive vision of this public service which is neither the punch police nor the show police. A global and balanced vision that operates on two legs: prevention first, and when it fails, repression. It is important that we get on with it.
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