The Minister of the Interior defended on Wednesday, step by step, the action of the police and the gendarmes during the demonstrations against the pension reform and in Sainte-Soline, considering that the “ultra-left” was the main responsible for the violence.
“The police and gendarmes are scapegoats”. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, defended, on Wednesday April 5, the action of the police during the demonstrations against the pension reform and during the violent clashes in Saint-Soline (Deux-Sèvres). Faced with the deputies of the law commission of the National Assembly, many of whom came to question him, for two hours, the “first cop in France” notably specified that 41 judicial investigations had been opened by the General Inspectorate of the police. (IGPN) and 4 by the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) since January. Here’s what to take away from his speech.
The use of 49.3 marked a turning point in the demonstrations
Gérald Darmanin, who came with a PowerPoint file to present a detailed quantified assessment of the last few weeks, assured Wednesday that the demonstrations against the pension reform organized between January 19 and March 16 – the date of recourse to 49.3 to have the pension reform adopted. retreats without a vote in the Assembly – had taken place “without any major incident”.
On the other hand, from this date, the intelligence services observed a very strong mobilization “from the ultra-left, especially in the west of France, but also in Paris”. “Notes from the intelligence services specified that the aim was to directly attack the physical integrity of the police”, added the Minister of the Interior.
In total, 1,851 arrests and 299 attacks against public institutions (prefectures, sub-prefectures, town halls, police stations, etc.) have been counted since March 16. There were a total of 132 attacks on parliamentary offices and 33 complaints from members of the government or elected officials were filed, for threats or insults, with the police headquarters.
A very important safety device in Sainte-Soline…
The Minister of the Interior then looked at the demonstration against the mega-basins in Sainte-Soline on March 25. Three complaints have since been filed against law enforcement, after protesters suffered serious injuries that day.
In 2022, an anti-basin demonstration had already done “61 wounded among the gendarmes, including several very seriously”, recalled Gérald Darmanin. “It is therefore nourished by this unfortunate experience that we had prepared this meeting in Sainte-Soline “which was the subject “a ban from the prefecture”, he recalled.
The week preceding the rally, more than 24,000 vehicles were checked, 62 knives seized, 67 petanque balls, 13 axes or hatchets, 7 fireworks mortars, listed the Minister of the Interior. Not less than “3,200 gendarmes and police have been deployed”repeated the Minister, regretting that the latter could not “flying drones” for intelligence purposes, in accordance with the decision of the Constitutional Council of January 20, 2022, and contrary to the “breakers”who used it.
… but who had to deal with “several hundred radicalized people”
“There is no doubt that several hundred people radicalized to the ultra-left, followed by the intelligence services, were present” Saturday March 25 in Deux-Sèvres, noted Gérald Darmanin during his presentation.
The group Les Uprisings of the Earth (SLT), at the forefront during the mobilization, “is not an association”, he continued, referring instead to a “de facto group”. The Minister of the Interior announced last week his intention to dissolve this collective, which defends a radical vision of environmental actions.
Gérald Darmanin then retraced the chronology of the day, assuring that, around 1 p.m., a group of around 1,000 black blocks “ran towards the gendarmes” while being “extremely armed” and “four vehicles were set on fire with molotov cocktails of a new kind, not necessarily known to the police”. Around 3 p.m., a “new assault” took place, he added.
The Minister of the Interior assured that “the national gendarmerie and a GIGN doctor were sent to try to rescue the seriously injured opponents” and that the latter brought “first aid for victims, despite insults and harassment” Some protestors. “Who was responsible for the relief? The law says: the organizer of the demonstration”reminded the minister.
The Brav-M, “intervention companies obviously trained in maintaining order”
The LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Thomas Portes denounced the “terror” sown “every evening in the streets of Paris” by the Brav-M, this police unit whose methods deemed violent have been widely criticized in recent weeks. “Will it take a new Malik Oussekine to make you hear reason?”, launched the chosen one, under the boos of part of the opposition, referring to the death of this 22-year-old student in 1986, struck by police “acrobats” on motorcycles, to which the Brav-M is often compared .
Gérald Darmanin was surprised that a petition was circulating to dissolve them, because “it’s not a unit”. “These are intervention companies obviously trained in maintaining order who use motorcycles to intervene (…) since the demonstrations, when they degenerate, require much more mobility”explained the Minister of the Interior, without however returning to the accusations of violence concerning them.
A tackle supported by La France insoumise, quoting a former left-wing minister
Responding to a question from the ecologist deputy Benjamin Lucas, Gérald Darmanin widely quoted and endorsed, with support, the words of the former socialist interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who spoke on Wednesday morning on France Inter, on La France Insoumise: “We knew it was a party of excess. Now it’s the party of insult (…) I expect nothing from them, I know how they are structured (…) I’m not shocked, I’m appalled, because I have a different idea of what our country’s politics are.”.
These declarations caused a great stir among the left-wing deputies present during this hearing in committee. “We can quote Bernard Cazeneuve without being called a fascist”, had immediately quipped the Minister of the Interior. Which ended by adding: “Fortunately, there is a common-sense Republican left that respects Republican forces in this country.”