While the authorities observe a refusal to comply “every 20 minutes”, according to Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, the Senate voted this Thursday in favor of a toughening of the penalties sanctioning them. Urban rodeos or assaults on elected officials are also part of the offenses concerned.
The vote for this additional article to the orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi), examined at first reading by the senators, was won by 317 votes against 12. Only the environmental group voted against , seeing it as “a display measure”, even if the socialist group was only in favor of the provision relating to elected officials.
According to the article introduced by the rapporteurs Marc-Philippe Daubresse (Les Républicains) and Loïc Hervé (centrist), the penalties incurred in the event of an attack against an elected official would be aligned with those provided for attacks against the police.
Specific penalties for urban rodeos
The Highway Code would be amended to more severely punish a driver’s refusal to comply: the penalty incurred would be increased from two to three years’ imprisonment and the amount of the fine doubled to 30,000 euros. Possible sentence reductions would also be reduced.
Finally, the Senate has planned to specifically punish urban rodeos “which would expose others to a risk of death or injury likely to result in mutilation or permanent infirmity”. The penalties incurred would then be five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros, against one year in prison and 15,000 euros excluding aggravating circumstances.
Gérald Darmanin indicated that he shared “much of the observation that the Senate makes”, but asked himself the question of “the form”, fearing that this article could be considered as a “legislative horseman”.
Nearly 4,000 rodeo infractions recorded since the start of the year
The Minister of the Interior communicated in the hemicycle a series of statistics: “3,808 rodeo offenses” have been recorded since January 1, 2022 “against 2,737″ over the same period in 2021. Since May 15, ” 75,000 operations to fight against rodeos have been put in place (…), 3,250 vehicles seized and 5,350 arrests carried out”.
Regarding refusals to comply, “28,000 facts in 2021, a refusal to comply now every 20 minutes”, continued the minister. “Nearly 20,000 facts over the first eight months have already been noted in 2022”, he added, stressing that “there have been more than 9,000 police officers and gendarmes injured on mission for three years on the refusals to comply (…) first cause of injury in the police and the national gendarmerie”.
Indicating “understanding” and “approving” the article introduced by the Senate, Gérald Darmanin specified that he was ready to improve the system, for example on the question of the seizure of vehicles when these “are officially loaned and then declared stolen”.