Rejection of a request for a debate in the National Assembly on its controversial dissolution

2023-05-02 14:46:23

A request from the left for the National Assembly to debate the dissolution of the controversial Brav-M police brigade was rejected on Tuesday, after a first setback in the law commission a month ago. This “Brigade for the Repression of Motorized Violent Actions” has been the subject of very strong criticism for several months, and some of its members find themselves under several investigations for violence or threats against demonstrators on the sidelines of rallies against the pension reform in Paris.

A citizen petition asking for its dissolution, signed by nearly 264,000 people, was discussed and then classified in the law commission on April 5. The presidents of the socialist and LFI groups, Boris Vallaud and Mathilde Panot, then tried to give it a second chance, asking the presidency of the Assembly that it still be subject to a debate in the hemicycle.

Debate on the “repression of the social movement”

In vain. The Assembly’s conference of presidents, bringing together the leaders of the various political groups, rejected this request on Tuesday. The groups Les Républicains and Rassemblement national argued in particular that the rejection of the petition by the law commission on April 5 should be respected. Dozens of citizen petitions concerning the Brav-M have flourished in recent weeks on the site of the Assembly, one of them bringing together Tuesday morning just over 26,000 signatures.

The question of maintaining order in France continues to agitate the benches of the Palais-Bourbon, and the violence and injuries on the sidelines of the May Day demonstrations should in no way slow down this momentum. A debate on “the repression of the social movement against the pension reform” must also take place on Wednesday in the hemicycle, at the initiative of the LFI group. According to figures from Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, “61 demonstrators” and 406 police and gendarmes were injured on May 1 on national territory, some of them seriously.