Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday denounced a “despicable and unacceptable” tweet and called for the dissolution of the France police union. This police union congratulated the police officer implicated in the death of Nahel, 17, on Tuesday in Nanterre: “#Nanterre Congratulations to the colleagues who opened fire on a young 17-year-old criminal. By neutralizing his vehicle, they protected their lives and those of other road users. The only responsible for the death of this thug are his parents, unable to educate their son”. The union’s Twitter account has since been suspended and the union seems to have distanced itself, declaring in a statement “not to recognize being the author of the contentious publications concerning the Nanterre affair”.
In a press release published on Wednesday, the Ministry of the Interior had described France police as a “small group”, “which is in no way a representative union of the national police”. During the professional elections of 2018 and 2022, this union had obtained 3.06 and 3.12% of the votes, scores which do not classify it, in fact, as a representative union, according to the criteria recalled on the Ministry of Labor website. In 2014, the first elections where the union was present, it had collected 0.95% of the votes.
The union was founded by Michel Thooris, former security adviser to Marine Le Pen for the 2012 presidential election. He had previously participated in the creation of another union, Action police CFTC, according to The world. In a 2011 article, the newspaper reminded that the union had called for the intervention of the army in the suburbs during the 2005 riots. Michel Thooris had also been a FN candidate for the legislative elections in 2012. In the last legislative elections, it was Deputy General Secretary, Bruno Attal, who stood as a candidate in the Rhône under the colors of Reconquest, the party of Eric Zemmour. One of the three national secretaries, Aurélia Maillard, is the departmental delegate of Reconquest in Mayotte.
The union made itself known at the time of the yellow vests, where it proposed a count of demonstrators. He multiplies the media stunts: in 2019, he file a complaint against a school principal and National Education. In question, a song by Aldebert learned by the children, in which the singer offers among many proposals for “missing school” to “pee on a policeman”. He also file a complaint for “fraud” against Renaud Muselier, the president of the Paca region. He had launched a kitty for “the forces of order”. Michel Thooris and the deputy secretary general of the movement, Bruno Attal, spoke on the set of TPMP or Russia Today. He made himself known by posting on YouTube a video defending the police officers implicated in the attack on producer Michel Zecler, like the note Street press.
The union campaigns for the carrying of arms by administrative, technical and scientific personnel of the national police, as well as for the end of sentence adjustments or criminal majority from the age of 15. In cold weather with the other police unions and with Gérald Darmanin, the union called on the Minister of the Interior, via its secretary general, not to dissolve it. He also disputes the dismissal of the police of Bruno Attal, which had been announced by Gérald Darmanin on Wednesday.