NUÑEZ. Laurent Nuñez was officially appointed prefect of police of Paris, this Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Who is he? What do we say about it? What we know about Didier Lallement’s replacement.
It is therefore officially the new face of authority in Paris. Laurent Nuñez was officially appointed prefect of police of Paris this Wednesday, July 20, 2022 on the sidelines of the Council of Ministers. The announcement was made by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who has authority over Didier Lallement’s successor. “The President of the Republic, on my proposal, has appointed Laurent Nuñez Prefect of Police. It is the choice of a man of experience who knows the police headquarters perfectly and who has exercised many national responsibilities”, commented the “first cop of France”.
At 58, Laurent Nuñez has therefore acceded to one of the most important positions in the Republic, that of the state authority in terms of security in Paris, but also in the three departments of the inner suburbs of Hauts-de- Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne. This specialist in terrorism issues will now be in charge of maintaining public order in the capital and its surroundings, leading a team of more than 40,000 agents. Face not totally unknown because of his multiple appearances alongside Christophe Castaner when the latter was Minister of the Interior, the former Secretary of State attached to Place Beauvau will now make himself known to the general public and see many challenges appear before him.
The degraded image that sticks to the skin of the police headquarters, between constant use of force via tear gas, LBD shots and slippages by the police sometimes going as far as police violence, was clearly embodied by the face of the prefect Didier Lallement. Does replacing it mean new method? For Rémi Feraud, PS senator from Paris and boss of the municipal councilors of the majority of the capital, “Laurent Nuñez is a great civil servant, who knows the house. He will be able to return to a republican conception of the function”, as he has entrusted to Public Senate. A man “more rounded, more human, easier in the balance of power”, according to the comment of a police officer who collaborated with, reported by European 1. Character traits confirmed by a ministerial source at Releasewhich speaks of a “good technician, hardworking, intellectual, and he already has a fine knowledge of the house.”
However, if Philippe Domknati, Senator LR, speaks of a “friendly, pleasant man who listens to people” with Public Senate, he notes, however, the constant volatility of a future prefect of police “who changes position every two years. Under these conditions, we have never been able to control his action, nor verify his feedback.” In 2018, in a portrait by Releasea former “PP” also had some reservations about him: “Laurent Nuñez is certainly pleasant and intellectual, but he is also docile and deferential towards his supervisory authority. He has too much sense of the State to dare to shit in the glue. However, in this ruthless environment, you have to know how to say shit to your minister.
Laurent Nuñez future prefect of police of Paris
Ten years later, Laurent Nuñez therefore moved back into an office at the Paris police headquarters. But this time, it is no longer in that of the chief of staff but in that of the prefect of the capital. The fifty-year-old was indeed appointed this Wednesday, July 20 in place of Didier Lallement. The decision was officially ratified this Wednesday, during the Council of Ministers. It is indeed by a decree signed by the President of the Republic, on the proposal of the Prime Minister, that such an appointment is recorded.
Laurent Nuñez has taken over the reins of policing, which has been particularly decried in the capital over the past three years, where the use of force has not been made sparingly, tear gas and LBD fire having been legion during demonstrations, in particular during those of the Yellow Vests and various raids in the street. A non-exhaustive list to which are added evacuations of migrant camps often muscular, as well as small sentences which had not failed to scratch the image of the “PP”.
Above all, Laurent Nuñez dons the costume of prefect of police two years before a particularly important deadline for Paris and France: that of the 2024 Olympic Games. A hell of a logistical challenge and of which the security framework will be a very large piece. All the more so after the fiasco of the organization of the Champions League final at the Stade de France. Among the other hot issues, the social protest which should be heard in the street at the start of the school year against the pension reform or the management of migrants and cracked people in Paris.
Biography of Laurent Nuñez
Born in 1964, Laurent Nuñez is a servant of the State, a senior civil servant throughout his career. A graduate in the management of local authorities, he worked in the economic department of the General Council of Cher at the age of 23, before becoming a tax inspector. It was only ten years later that he entered the ENA (promotion 97-99), finding himself alongside Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of Carrefour, but also Chantal Jouanno, ex-minister of Nicolas Sarkzoy, or even Claude Raynal, a political figure from Haute-Garonne.
Appointed secretary general of the prefecture of Haute-Saône, Laurent Nuñez remained in office until 2005 when he joined the Ministry of the Interior, responsible for managing the prefectural body as head of office. A function that he left three years later to become chief of staff of Nacer Meddah, prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis. When the representative of the State in 93 packs up, Laurent Nuñez finds himself propelled to Bayonne, as sub-prefect. Again, the mission is brief: in 2012, he left for Paris, heading to the police headquarters, appointed director of cabinet of Bernard Boucault. In 2015, he crossed France again and rose to prominence by becoming the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône.
Emmanuel Macron recalls him to the capital after his victory in the presidential election and places him at the head of the DGSI. He only remained in office for a year, becoming in the fall of 2018 Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, before taking charge of the national coordination of intelligence and the fight against terrorism after the departure of the former tenant from Place Beauvau. Once again, after two years, he therefore changed positions to become the new prefect of police in Paris.