The transition should be easy. The Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, is preparing to vote on Tuesday in first reading the orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi), carried by Gérald Darmanin.
In contrast to the stormy atmosphere that reigns in the National Assembly, the examination of this first bill submitted to senators for the 2022-2023 parliamentary session has not put the government in difficulty.
A budget increase over five years
Essentially, it provides for an additional 15 billion euros in the budget over five years, of which “more than half, 8 billion, devoted to cyber and digital”, indicated the minister. 8,500 police and gendarme positions must be created, including “3,000 from 2023”, according to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
As France prepares to host two major sporting events – the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games – 11 new units of mobile forces “specialized in rapid intervention” will be created. And to ensure security in rural areas, 200 gendarmerie brigades. The Senate voted, with the consent of the government, amendments in favor of communities and overseas for the reception of these new gendarmerie brigades.
To combat ever-increasing cybercrime, the bill allows seizures of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. Regarding “ransomware” – ransom demands after a cyberattack -, it conditions reimbursement by insurance companies on the filing of a complaint by the victim.
Major addition by senators: the penalties incurred for refusal to comply, urban rodeos and violence against elected officials will be increased. The text also provides for more severe penalties for sexist insult and includes several measures to simplify criminal procedure. The principle of the tort fixed fine will be extended to 25 new offences. Socialist amendments aim to facilitate the reception and access to online procedures for victims with disabilities.
Heated debate with environmental senators
The Minister of the Interior had tabled only three amendments to the text of the rapporteurs Marc-Philippe Daubresse (LR) and Loïc Hervé (centrist), all adopted in the hemicycle. One of them responds to the Senate’s wish to see the provisions relating to the “Radio Network of the future” written directly into law, instead of an authorization to legislate by ordinance.
The controversial reform of the judicial police, mentioned in the report annexed to the bill but of a regulatory nature, was the main point of debate in the hemicycle. “The Lopmi is the antechamber of the reform to come carrying the departmentalization of the judicial police (…), synonymous with intrusion of the executive power in the criminal procedure”, attacked the president of the group CRCE with a communist majority Eliane Assassi. Gérald Darmanin tried to calm the spirits by assuring once again that the magistrates “will always have the immense and complete responsibility for the investigations”.
The issue of domestic violence also gave rise to heated exchanges, under pressure from Laurence Rossignol, the minister and the rapporteurs Marc-Philippe Daubresse (LR) and Loïc Hervé (centrist) believing that Lopmi was not intended to reform the Civil Code.
But it was with the environmental senators that the exchanges were the most virulent throughout the three days of debate. Ecologists have notably pointed to “abusive or discriminatory identity checks”. “You are always in control, the sanction, not thugs, but the police,” reacted the minister. He had previously denounced “hurtful and false accusations” against the police.
Environmental groups and majority communist CRCE have already announced that they will vote against the text. Rather “benevolent” with regard to a bill which gives additional means to the security and emergency forces, the Socialists reserved their vote. After its passage in the Senate, it will soon be the turn of the deputies to peel this sovereign text.