Minister of the Interior for a year (and two days), Gerald Darmanin did not have to manage the crisis of “yellow vests”. However, since the weekly demonstrations of the movement, between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2020, the question of maintaining order has become particularly thorny in the public debate. Violence, degradation, demonstrators stunned by the use of LBD … “The perception of the maintenance of order by the French has changed”, observed this Thursday Guillaume Farde, professor affiliated with the school of public affairs of Sciences Po and researcher associated with Cevipof, during a round table of the “Beauvau de la sécurité” devoted to this theme. Between December 2018 and February 2020, the confidence of the French in the police and the gendarmerie lost 8 points, he notes.
“We very quickly lost the battle for communication on the first weekends of ‘yellow vests’ when we had enough to win the heart of public opinion with what may have happened in certain places, in particular in top of the Champs-Elysées ”, remarks the secretary general of SGP Police-FO Unit, Grégory Joron. “The war of the image, it was not carried out much”, regrets Patrice Ribeiro, general secretary of the Synergie officers union. He believes that the Paris prosecutor tends to open investigations “only on the dissemination on Twitter or social networks of a truncated video”.
No more time to train
During the first demonstrations of “yellow vests”, “we sent colleagues who were not trained and not equipped for that”, continues Patrice Ribeiro, adding that there were “many injured” among the police. “The maintenance of order is a profession of specialists, it must remain so”, adds Frédéric Le Louette, president of the GendXXI association and member of the council of the military function of the gendarmerie. But, adds this non-commissioned officer, these units – in particular the CRS and mobile gendarmes – lack the time to train. “We can no longer,” he says, “with the operational constraints we have,” train ourselves properly. »An observation shared by Grégory Joron. The trade unionist notes that the authorities are now deploying “disproportionate means of force, whatever the demonstration”.
The representatives of the police unions unanimously called for additional staff. Johann Cavallero, national CRS delegate of the Alliance union, also considers it necessary to “review the permanent missions of the CRS”. “The CRS and squadrons of mobile gendarmes must be dedicated to their core business and not, as unfortunately is sometimes the case, to static guard missions”, abounds Sabrina Rigolet, national secretary of the SCSI-CFDT.
“Everyone in France can have a drone except the police”
During the meeting, the Minister of the Interior indicated that he wished to present in “September” a new national law enforcement plan “validated by the Council of State”. The highest administrative court, on June 10, inflicted a disavowal on Gérald Darmanin by canceling several provisions of this text presented in September 2020, including the technique of the “trap” – which consists of surrounding the demonstrators and holding them in a given perimeter – as presented by the Minister of the Interior, and the obligation for journalists to leave the premises when the demonstrations are dispersed.
The minister also confirmed that he would represent in Parliament a new device for the use of drones during demonstrations, because he does not understand “that everyone in France [puisse] have a drone except the police ”. This point, contained in the “comprehensive security” law, was in fact censored by the Constitutional Council last May. The Beauvau of security should be concluded “in September by the President of the Republic”.