A gendarme helps maintain order during a demonstration organized in Paris in September 2020 (illustration) – ACCORSINI JEANNE / SIPA P / SIPA
- After the censorship of a good part of the law on global security by the Constitutional Council, this Thursday, the Minister of the Interior announced that he would propose a new version of article 24, intended to punish the dissemination of ‘images of police and gendarmes with the intention of harming them.
- In the ranks of LREM, enthusiasm did not seem to be there the day after the snub inflicted by the Sages.
- Some elected officials propose to abandon the idea of a specific article in favor of a very similar provision contained in the bill on separatism, which will come back to the Assembly in June.
“I will propose to the Prime Minister to improve the provisions” censored by the Constitutional Council. In the wake of the snub inflicted this Thursday by the Wise Men on the law on “global security”, the Minister of the Interior
did not admit defeat. On the former article 24, punishing the malicious dissemination of images of the police, “the idea is to present a new provision, remains to be determined in which text”, specifies the entourage of Gerald Darmanin. “It is an important provision to support the police and the gendarmes”, affirms one place Beauvau, where one does not hesitate to recall that it is the version of article 24 developed by the Senate which was rebutted by the Constitutional Council.
“Our ambition to better protect the police, it remains […]. We will seek to adapt our law and take into account this decision of the Constitutional Council to pursue our objectives ”, this Friday supported Gabriel Attal, government spokesperson, during a trip to Val-d’Oise. “We will not let go”, for his part assured the deputy LREM Jean-Michel Fauvergue, co-author of the initial bill,
at LCP’s microphone. “We are going to rework our copy and put it in other texts that will arrive at the National Assembly. “
Radio silence among macronists
But very few walking deputies gave voice, this Friday, to defend the vote for a new version of article 24. Explanation with Caroline Janvier, one of the few elected LREM who had spoken against the law: “This article was not a request of the deputies, there is therefore no particular attachment to this provision”, introduced at the instigation of the Ministry of the Interior. “We all agree on the need to better protect the police,” continues the elected representative of Loiret. Moreover, the Assembly voted on Thursday to increase the penalties for their attackers as part of the justice bill. But I do not believe that there is any question of reworking on a medium equivalent to article 24, which threatened public freedoms. “
On the Modem side – on which the majority in the Assembly now depends, as the recent soap opera on the health pass showed – several elected officials seem to want to move on, like Erwan Balanant, who had voted against article 24. “I had alerted from the first passage in the hemicycle and, reading the decision of the Constitutional Council, I have the impression to find my warnings, indicates the member of Finistère. The device was problematic from the start. I think we already had the tools, in the Penal Code and the 1881 press law, to protect the police. “
Still balancing: “The priority is to give concrete means of action to the police, and this is what Gérald Darmanin is doing, as shown by the budgets that are released and the number of positions created in the in recent years. For police officers, having new vehicles is sometimes as important as a bill. “
Rework the “Samuel Paty” layout
“We must not abandon the ambition of Article 24,” said Olivier Becht, president of the Agir group in the National Assembly, another component of the majority. “But taking into account the case law of the Constitutional Council on article 24 of the law on comprehensive security, we may be able to rework the provision introduced in the” separatism “law after the assassination of Samuel Paty. “After the attack on Conflans-Saint-Honorine, the bill” confirming respect for the principles of the Republic “had in fact been supplemented by an article 18 creating an offense of endangering civil servants by the malicious dissemination of information. ‘information relating to privacy. “This would achieve the goal of protecting all public officials against those who want to harm their physical integrity. “
An option also favored by the deputy LREM Sacha Houlié who, like his colleague Caroline Janvier, was opposed to article 24: “There is no real need for a categorical text, the drafting of which is subject to a lot. interpretations, in particular on the intention of the author. “For him, article 18 of the law” separatism “, which returns to the Assembly on June 7 in committee,” is more effective and legally more successful, because it prevents all attacks against officials, including social networks ”.
The option chosen by the government should in any case be known quickly. According to Matignon, the follow-up to the censorship of the Constitutional Council will be examined in the coming days during interministerial meetings devoted to parliamentary matters. The Stations of the Cross in article 24 are therefore not quite finished …