The mission of the French police, whose image has been tarnished by cases of violence and racism under the mandate of Emmanuel Macron, remains a major theme and gives rise to all the bidding two months before the presidential election.
A subject of concern for the French (but far behind the issue of purchasing power), the fight against crime gives rise to numerous proposals and often cookie-cutter formulas to meet the need for security of the opinion.
Invited last week by the police union Alliance (ranked on the right), the right-wing and far-right candidates – those on the left had refused the invitation – thus engaged in a competition of firmness.
“Zero impunity”
The right-wing candidate Valérie Pécresse, who promises “zero impunity”, announced a budget increase of 50% over five years for the police, one-year prison sentences for any attack against a police officer or a gendarme, the end of the “culture of excuses”.
Like far-right candidates, she made the link between immigration and terrorism.
On the far right, Marine Le Pen, advocating “total firmness”, wants the creation of 20,000 prison places over five or six years, promises the expulsion of foreign prisoners and the end of the adjustment of certain sentences. His rival Éric Zemmour felt that the police were facing a “clash of civilizations” in the suburbs and that they had to become “hunters” again.
He also wants to introduce an “excusable defence” criterion for police officers and citizens.
The film BAC Northwhich describes the daily life of police officers in the sensitive neighborhoods of Marseille, had been screened in front of the guests, leading the director, Cédric Jimenez, to regret yet another “political recovery” of his film.
degraded picture
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, representing the presidential majority, for his part defended Emmanuel Macron’s balance sheet and the programming bill for the next five years, endowed with an additional 15 billion euros.
However, the image of the police has deteriorated with part of the population under the Macron five-year term, even if 72% of French people trust this institution, according to a study carried out in January.
Police violence – President Macron himself used the formula – during the social crisis of the Yellow Vests in 2018, and cases of racism, such as that of the black producer Michel Zecler who was beaten up by the police in 2020, marked the spirits.
The Yellow Vests and their procession of seriously injured “were a defining moment, which we still feel today”, recognizes a senior police official, who recognizes “a real subject of image” of the police.
The effects of the daily security police (PSQ), a “made-to-measure police”, “anchored in the territories”, supposed to respond to mistrust vis-à-vis the police, remained limited, in particular in because of other priorities: the Yellow Vests crisis, then the health crisis.
On the left, the candidates prefer to insist on the need to strengthen the means of justice. The ecologist Yannick Jadot thus wants to increase the annual budget by at least one billion in five years, the socialist Anne Hidalgo wants to launch a major recruitment plan for magistrates, clerks and social workers.
“From the cellar to the attic”
The leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon intends for his part to reform the police “from the cellar to the attic” and promises the dismantling of the Anti-crime Brigades (BAC), specialized in risky interventions in sensitive areas, in favor of a return to community policing.