2023-10-02 08:18:00
The list remained jealously guarded until then. Traveling in Lot-et-Garonne this Monday, Emmanuel Macron will unveil the locations of 200 new gendarmerie brigades, a 2022 campaign promise. Highly awaited by the territories concerned, rural or peri-urban areas, the list should be released mid-afternoon.
Before that, the Head of State must inaugurate a new gendarmerie barracks in Tonneins (Lot-et-Garonne), accompanied by the Director General of the gendarmerie Christian Rodriguez and the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.
In the end, “there will be between one and three or four brigades per department”, in mainland France and overseas, explained the Élysée. It is a question of responding to “the very strong expectation of proximity of the police and the gendarmerie” and of “strengthening the territorial network” of the State. “It is a historic effort”, underlined the presidency, “more than 500” brigades were abolished between 2007 and 2016.
Some brigades will be fixed, with around ten gendarmes, but the majority will be mobile, with around six soldiers. They will travel by truck between the different municipalities in the most “landlocked” territories of their department. The first will be installed in November and their creation should last until 2027.
“2,000 more gendarmes in our countryside”
This presidential trip comes as security remains one of the priorities of the French, still marked by the urban riots following the death of young Nahel in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) at the end of June. But the “immense response” promised by Emmanuel Macron after this violence is still awaited. Several measures must be presented on October 9 during the Interministerial Committee of Cities.
With these new brigades, there will be “2,000 more gendarmes in our countryside”, welcomed Gérald Darmanin last spring, specifying that the members of these brigades were already recruited. In total, these creations represent 2,144 additional gendarmerie positions, out of the 8,500 creations of law enforcement personnel announced by the government by the end of the five-year term.
Emmanuel Macron had promised the creation of these new brigades in January 2022, during a trip on the theme of security to Nice in the style of a pre-presidential campaign. He also announced an increase of 15 billion euros for the Interior budget and a doubling of the presence of security forces on public roads in 10 years.
These commitments were included in the orientation and planning law of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi), which promises this increase in credits over five years (2023-2027), even if it must be confirmed in the budgets of the Ministry of the Interior. State debated every year. Adopted in Parliament in December, this text aims to prepare law enforcement for changing threats, but also to meet the needs for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Several months of consultation with elected officials
To select the sites concerned by the new brigades, “economic, demographic and operational” criteria (delinquency, burglary, domestic violence, etc.) were taken into account, explained the Élysée. The choices were made after several months of consultation with the prefects.
“We clearly understood that one of the reasons why the French could be angry and ask questions about the action and firmness of the State is that in the countryside (…) we did not not always knowing how to provide the means for security, we focused a lot on the cities,” admitted Gérald Darmanin last April. Furthermore, Emmanuel Macron will be the guest of 19/20 on France 3 from 7:15 p.m. for an interview “devoted to security”, the Élysée announced. He will speak from the town hall square in Clairac (Lot-et-Garonne).
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