Regularly accused of a brutal policing policy, the executive responds by targeting thugs and, without naming them, the black blocs. The government is "reflecting" on how to "adapt" to the "new uses" of "thugs" during protests, government spokesman Olivier Véran said Wednesday (May 3) after Minister of Justice Eric Dupond- Moretti, announced work on the subject with his interior counterpart, Gérald Darmanin.
“There is a double obligation. The obligation to guarantee the safety of those who demonstrate. And the obligation to ensure that those who are there to kill, to break are put out of harm's way and that they cannot participate in these events, "explained Mr. Véran during the report of the council. ministers. “Does the legislative arsenal, does the law today allow it to be done? I recall that in 2019 we adopted an important text which made it possible to have improvements" but "we had not gone completely to the end", he continued, referring to the law adopted against the backdrop of the crisis of the "yellow vests" and of which the Constitutional Council had however censored certain measures, including the possibility for the prefects to pronounce administrative bans on demonstrations.
There is, however, "no answer at this stage" on the need for a new law, for the government spokesman. But "in any case, we are thinking about it", said, in the morning on RTL, Eric Dupond-Moretti, specifying that he would meet Gérald Darmanin on Friday to "work together" on this subject.
"We are in a functioning democracy"
During the Council of Ministers, Emmanuel Macron made "the distinction between those who demonstrated, once again freely, and those who came to break, to kill. He recalled his support for the highly mobilized internal security forces "and "sometimes even ostracized by part of the political class", "on the far left side", also declared Mr. Véran.
"If justice is seized, systematically, it is because we are in a functioning democracy. And if there are people who are released, it's because we are in a functioning democracy, "he also replied when questioned about the" attacks on fundamental rights " denounced by the general controller of places of deprivation of liberty, Dominique Simonnot, for people arrested in Paris during demonstrations against the pension reform. "I invite each and everyone to moderation in the face of the exceptional violence that we have witnessed," he added.
