The government restarts the bill to combat violators … and controversy

In early April, police unions put pressure on Gérald Darmanin. They demanded “legal and technical means to prevent violence during demonstrations and punish the perpetrators.” This was a few days after the clashes around the Sainte-Solin “mega-basin” and the anti-pensions demonstration on March 23, which were notable for their brutality. The Minister of the Interior then approved: “Yes, we will have to return to the law on violators.”

Violence during the May Day demonstrations, during which 406 policemen and gendarmes were wounded, revived the debate. “How many traumas and tragedies in our ranks before we give the police legal tools to prevent these criminals from accessing any demonstrations or gatherings? “Union-SGP reacted.

On Tuesday, Gérald Darmanin renewed his desire to write a new text calling for the “strongest criminal sanctions against those who attack the police.” This Wednesday, Eric Dupont-Moretti followed suit. “We are thinking about it, and I am meeting with the Minister of the Interior on Friday, we are going to work together,” the keeper of the seals said on RTL.

“The envisaged new legislative measures are still under consideration, but we see that more funds are needed to fight these thugs at the national and international level,” emphasizes one of the interior minister’s confidants.

2019 law “in-progress” according to Veran

The government is “thinking” about how to “adjust to the new use of thugs” during demonstrations, government spokesman Olivier Veran confirmed on Wednesday. “There is a double obligation. Obligation to guarantee the safety of demonstrators. And the obligation to ensure that those who are there to kill, break, are safe and that they cannot participate in these events,” explained Olivier Veran during the report of the Council of Ministers.

“Does the legislative arsenal, the law, allow this to be done today? I remind you that in 2019 we adopted an important text that allowed for improvements, “but we didn’t reach the end,” he continued, referring to the law adopted against the backdrop of the crisis. “Yellow Vests”.

Censorship

However, the Constitutional Council censored some of the measures, including the ability for prefects to declare administrative bans on demonstrations. Is a new law needed? “There is no answer at this stage,” a government spokesman replied.

On the part of lawyers and magistrates, the answer is clear. “As soon as a social problem arises, a law is needed that does not question what already exists in the legal arsenal,” says Thibaut Spriet, national secretary of the Magistracy Syndicate (classified left).

Since 2010, the law punishing participation in a group with the intent to cause harm “already constitutes the offense on which the bulk of arrests at recent demonstrations are based,” he recalls.

“News, Law…”

“The news, the law… I thought we were done with this legislative inflation,” criticized Cecile Mamelin, Vice President of the Union of Magistrates (USM, Majority), pointing to “an uninteresting political message.

“We are already armed and equipped,” emphasizes Nicolas Hervier, a public law lawyer. “If we go any further, we risk undermining freedom of demonstration.”

According to law professor Paul Kassia, this is “a sabotage operation by the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Justice (…), not to mention pensions or state security methods.”