She is full of craftiness, this sentence pronounced by Gérald Darmanin: “This is a common sense policy. We judge strangers for what they do, not who they are.“, before'”assume a form of double jeopardy.”
There is, first of all, the context in which this sentence is pronounced: the controversy was sparked on July 24 by the Minister of the Interior, who announced the arrest of a suspect after the attack on police officers in Lyons. His arrest and his expulsion, also therefore. Except that the man had finally been exonerated by Justice. Never mind, Gérald Darmanin had maintained his decision, justifying his irregular situation on French soil and the fact that he is known to the police.
And to make people forget the mess at the beginning, here he is now applying what the politicians call the “Pasqua’s theorem“: “When you’re bothered by a case, you have to create a case in the case, and if necessary another case in the case of the case, until no one understands anything anymore”, according to comments reported and attributed to the former Minister of the Interior Charles Pasqua. And Gérald Darmanin therefore assumes to restore a form of “double jeopardy”, by announcing a law to lift the legislative reservations.
Except that this “double penalty” has never been removed. Nothing prevents today, in the majority of cases, from expelling a foreigner who commits a crime or an offence. This is article 131-30 of the Penal Code, the latest version of which dates from March 24, 2020, just before Gérald Darmanin was appointed Minister of the Interior: “The penalty of banning from French territory may be pronounced, permanently or for a period of ten years at the most, against any foreigner guilty of a crime or misdemeanour.
In “assuming a form of double jeopardy“, Gérald Darmanin suggests that he is committing a transgression which is not one, since it is the law. The exceptions he wishes to lift concern foreigners under the age of 13, who are not deportable at this stage. Who put them in place? Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2003, when he himself was Minister of the Interior. If there must be transgression on the part of Gérald Darmanin, it is more vis-à-vis this heritage, from the one who was his mentor.
But then why do this? First, because he has made provocation his trademark. It is part of his temperament, of course, but it is also a signature. Remember the controversy in the summer of 2020 with his colleague from the Minister of Justice around the “wildness” from France.
This also corresponds to his roadmap, to stifle the right and to push back the National Rally: he had thus accused in the past Marine Le Pen of being “too soft”. Except…it doesn’t necessarily work.
In any case, speaking loudly, provoking is not enough. The proof: Marine Le Pen achieves her best score in the last presidential election, and she has never had so many deputies in the National Assembly. Another reservation: while the Minister of the Interior is considered one of the presidential candidates of 2027, the strategy of provocation is a double-edged sword. It certainly allows him to be identified on the regalian, to be one of the faces of the government best known by the French, but does not allow him to win hearts. On the contrary even: it damages its image when Gérald Darmanin goes too far, on the management of the Champions League final at the Stade de France, for example. Attention, therefore, slippery ground.