After weeks of protests in France, police unions are sounding the alarm. Two of them called for “an anti-breaker law” to fight against violence. The unions grouped within the union bloc led by Alliance, sent a letter to the Head of State on Thursday and obtained a meeting on Friday. They are expected on May 12 at 10 a.m. at the Elysee Palace where they will be received by Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff, Patrick Strzoda and the president’s security adviser, Frédéric Rose, they announced to AFP.
“This is a first step. Our goal is to be received by the Head of State,” said Alliance spokesman Eric Henry. In its letter to Emmanuel Macron, the union bloc, the majority within the police, denounces “the incredible violence” that the police have to face during the demonstrations. It calls for “a criminal response with a minimum sentence for law enforcement aggressors from the first act committed”, “the creation of an offense of incitement to hatred or to commit a crime against the police order”, “the absolute urgency of an anti-riot law”, and the “legal protection of the use of drones for preventive and judicial purposes”, as well as salary increase measures.
A request to parliamentarians
Around the same time, the secretary general of the SGP police unit, Grégory Joron, sent all the presidents of parliamentary groups, with the exception of that of LFI, a letter insisting on the need to “legislate” to “ban protests [aux] violent and dangerous elements also for our democracy”.
Grégory Joron underlines in his letter, dated May 3, that “the massive presence of ultra-violent radical elements” poses “a real question of security in the demonstrations for the police officers but also for the demonstrators as well as the residents”. “Will we have to wait for a tragedy to occur in the ranks of the police or the demonstrators for the political power and the legislator to finally become aware of the gravity of the situation (…)? “Asks the secretary general of the SGP police unit.
A text censored in 2019
These initiatives support the Minister of the Interior, who on Tuesday, in the aftermath of May 1 demonstrations marred by violence, particularly in Paris, had again called for the development of an anti-breaker law. But on Wednesday, government spokesman Olivier Véran was cautious, arguing that there was “no answer at this stage” on the need for a new law.
He also recalled that in 2019 the Constitutional Council had emptied a similar text of its objective, by censoring the possibility for prefects to issue administrative bans on demonstrations. Nevertheless, the Keeper of the Seals Éric Dupond-Moretti and Gérald Darmanin must study the question.