• In the wake of the violence during the mobilization against the pension reform, the government announced that it was considering a new anti-thug law, promoted by police unions who meet Emmanuel Macron this Friday and Monday.
  • The union Unité SGP police FO considers it necessary to allow prefects to pronounce administrative bans on demonstrations, on the model of administrative stadium bans punishing violent football fans.
  • The Judicial Union believes that a new law would be unnecessary. There are "already many repressive tools in our criminal law that make it possible to repress and punish the perpetrators of offences in the context of a demonstration," observes Thibaut Spriet, national secretary of the SM.

In the police ranks, spirits are still very marked by the violence that punctuated the demonstrations of May 1st. A riot police received a Molotov cocktail, which seriously burned him in the face, boulevard Voltaire, in Paris. Like him, 406 police and gendarmes, who faced the thugs and black blocs for nearly four hours, were wounded that day in France and 31 were hospitalized. "The demonstration shocked because the violence has gone to another level, police officers have still suffered attempted homicides," said Linda Kebbab, national delegate of the union Unité SGP police FO. The Paris prosecutor's office has indeed opened an investigation in these terms after the throwing of the Molotov cocktail on a policeman.

The police "are trying to stem exponential violence directed against citizens, property and institutions but especially against them," denounce several trade union organizations, including Alliance, in a letter addressed to the head of state. Their representatives are received this Friday and Monday at the Élysée by Patrick Strzoda, Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff. Their objective: to obtain "immediate strong gestures", including a new "anti-thugs" law.

"There are food for thought"

The Minister of the Interior has already judged that a new text is necessary. Gérald Darmanin discussed it last Friday with his counterpart of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti. "There are food for thought but it's still a bit early. We must know exactly what is in the existing law, what is applicable or not, and see how we can improve the text, "says one in the entourage of the Minister of Justice. He added: "When you see the images of May 1, it's normal to wonder and think about the subject."



Still, the last law of its kind dates back to April 2019. It introduced the offence of concealing one's face without legitimate reason during demonstrations and authorized searches of bags and vehicles in and around processions. On the other hand, the Constitutional Council had censured the measure allowing prefects to pronounce administrative bans on demonstrations, on the model of administrative stadium bans punishing violent football fans. The Wise Men considered that this provision infringed "the right of collective expression of ideas and opinions" and was "not appropriate, necessary and proportionate".

"We don't legally need a new law"

For Linda Kebbab, it is nevertheless necessary "to prohibit people who have already exercised violence, breakage or damage, to participate in a demonstration". On 1 May, some 540 people were arrested in France, including 305 in Paris. "But 80 to 90% of people were released" at the end of their police custody, adds the trade unionist, who nevertheless claims that "people were caught red-handed but were not convicted", for lack of evidence. Linda Kebbab calls for a reform of criminal procedure to "prevent lawyers from rushing into procedural irregularities".

Thibaut Spriet, national secretary of the Syndicat de la magistrature, is more circumspect about the need for a new law, noting that there are "already many repressive tools in our criminal law that make it possible to repress and punish the perpetrators of offences in the context of a demonstration". "We therefore do not legally need a new law that would be a law of display going in the direction of an overpenalization of the maintenance of order," says the magistrate. And the latter adds: "Burning a garbage can, destroying a public property, attacking the police, these are already offenses that can be subject to a sanction supposed to deter the perpetrators. " The government, he says, is trying to divert attention, with this text, from the "abusive police custody" and "police violence" observed.

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