Security Act: Bill goes to the National Assembly

Will the majority get the necessary support from the right? On Monday, the National Assembly is working on the Interior Ministry’s (Lopmi) Orientation and Programs Bill, which provides for an additional 15 billion euros over five years. The exchanges will start at 4:00 pm and should last all week, with more than a thousand amendments to be considered.

The bill already passed its first round in October without a hitch in the right-wing-dominated Senate. If almost all parliamentarians are in favor of increasing the resources of the police, then their direction raises questions and even contradictions with a part of the left.

“In accordance with the security laws of recent years”

“The declared priorities are not going in the right direction,” insists LFI MP Hugo Bernalicis, whose group planned to defend a previous motion to dismiss. “The goal is to put 30% blue more on the ground, continuing the militarization of police services,” he criticizes. “This text is directly in line with the security laws of recent years,” regrets Elsa Faucillon (PCF). “This is very far from our idea of ​​the ministry as an institution serving society,” environmentalist Sandra Regol says a lot.

The three groups are preparing to vote by majority vote against the text. Their socialist allies proceed from a less hostile position – the PS senators voted in favor of the bill. But they have a number of grievances: “nothing about local police, crime prevention, municipal police,” lists MP Roger Vico, for whom the proposed “police vision” “poses a problem.”

The performer counts on the right

Thus, deprived of an absolute majority, the executive branch is more likely to turn to the right to adopt a text that is “timely and desirable” in the eyes of Eric Ciotti (LR). The boss of the deputies of the Republic of Lithuania, Olivier Marlet, generally sees in Lopmi “useful fundraising measures, but not a great voluntary text.”

Almost half of the 15 billion euros should be directed towards the digital transformation of the ministry. Within five years, it is planned to create about 8.5 thousand police and gendarmerie posts. To combat cybercrime, the bill allows the seizure of digital assets. It also provides for harsher penalties for sexist insults and includes a number of measures to simplify criminal proceedings. Victims will be able to file a complaint via videoconference.

It is also planned to increase the amount of a fixed fine to about twenty offenses. MPs on the committee added a traffic violation case, which the left sees as a disguised attack on yellow vests or climate activists.