Police control and compliance with sanitary measures in Paris, illustration – Jacques Witt / SIPA
“From Thursday”, the police and gendarmes will intensify controls, ahead of an Easter weekend “at high risk”, to enforce health measures to fight against the coronavirus, said Gerald Darmanin on Tuesday.
These controls will take place “on the tolls, in the stations, to prevent the French from not respecting the ten kilometer rule (radius of movement around the home except for compelling reasons), until Monday-Tuesday”, declared the minister. of the Interior on the sidelines of his monthly press conference devoted to the activity of his ministry.
Controls also in “places of worship to fight terrorism”
“It is a question of underlining the importance during this weekend at high risks of not leaving its territory”, added the minister. While many religious services will be held, Gérald Darmanin recalled that the police will also be mobilized to “control places of worship to fight against terrorism”.
If 90,000 police and gendarmes were mobilized last weekend, the minister did not give a figure for Easter, “perhaps pending measures taken by the government”. A Defense Council is being held around Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday to take stock of the pandemic.
Nearly 17,000 verbalizations last weekend
Last weekend, 100,000 curfew checks were carried out in France, giving rise to 17,000 fines, according to figures from Beauvau. The 19 departments concerned by the reinforced health measures concentrate 60% of these checks and nearly half – 8,000 – of the reports.
Since December 15 and the end of the second confinement, 5.2 million checks have been carried out and more than 500,000 verbalizations have been drawn up, according to the Ministry of the Interior. A very large majority of them concern “travel offenses” (480,664), in front of the failure to present a PCR test, compulsory to leave the territory (19,525) and participation in prohibited gatherings and meetings (14,835 ).