Gérald Darmanin wants to strengthen the power of mayors and prefects to request internment in psychiatric hospitals for certain people

The minister says that out of 100 potential Islamist terrorists, “25 to 40” of them have psychiatric problems.

“We must have the possibility in the law, as the mayor or the prefect does for the ordinary madness of the street, to note that this person is not doing well” and to request internment in a psychiatric hospital, estimates Friday December 8 on franceinfo Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior. This could have made it possible, assures the minister, to intern the terrorist arrested for the knife and hammer attack which left one dead near the Eiffel Tower last week.

Mayors and prefects can already do this, but in the event of “ordinary madness”specifies the Minister of the Interior: “If someone is wandering naked in the street, for example, the municipal police will present him to a general practitioner, who notes that he is not in his right mind, and goes to see the mayor to ask for internment in a hospital. psychiatric”.

A decision taken by the mayor or the prefect as well as a psychiatrist

Except that the “issue” of the suspect in the terrorist attack, according to Gérald Darmanin, is that he “did not involve external behavior that amounted to madness”. He emphasizes that, however, “this terrorist saw a psychiatrist 40 times and he was under psychiatric treatment”. The minister says that out of 100 potential Islamist terrorists, “25 to 40” of them have psychiatric problems.

In the event of a change in the law, the mayor or prefect “wouldn’t do it alone”assures Gérald Darmanin, “he would request that this person be arrested by the police to present him before a psychiatrist who would make a diagnosis”to then request internment.