Will the majority get the necessary support from the right? The National Assembly is working on Monday on the orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi) which provides for an additional 15 billion euros over five years. The kick-off of the exchanges will be given at 4 p.m., and they must last all week, with more than a thousand amendments to be examined.
The bill already passed a first round of scrutiny in the right-wing dominated Senate in October. If almost all parliamentarians support an increase in resources for the police, their direction raises questions, even antagonisms with part of the left.
“In line with the security laws of recent years”
“The stated priorities are not going in the right direction,” insists LFI MP Ugo Bernalicis, whose group has planned to defend a prior rejection motion. “The objective is to put 30% of bleu more on the ground, by continuing the militarization of the police services”, he criticizes. “It is a text in direct line with the security laws of recent years”, deplores Elsa Faucillon (PCF). “It is very far from the vision that we have of the ministry as an institution at the service of the public”, abounds the ecologist Sandra Regol.
The three groups are preparing to vote with a majority against the text. Their socialist allies are starting from a less hostile position – PS senators voted in favor of the bill. But they have a series of grievances: “there is nothing about local policing, crime prevention, municipal police”, lists MP Roger Vicot, for whom the “vision of the police” offered “poses problem “.
The executive counts on the right
Deprived of an absolute majority, the executive will therefore turn rather to the right to pass a text which is “opportune and welcome” in the eyes of Éric Ciotti (LR). The boss of the LR deputies Olivier Marleix generally sees in the Lopmi “useful measures to garner, but no large voluntary text”.
Almost half of the 15 billion euros must be dedicated to the digital transformation of the ministry. Some 8,500 police and gendarme positions are to be created over the five-year term. To combat cybercrime, the bill allows seizures of digital assets. It also provides for more severe penalties for sexist insult and includes several measures to simplify criminal procedure. Victims will be able to file a complaint by videoconference.
It is also planned to extend the fixed fine to around twenty offences. The deputies in committee added the case of the offense of obstructing road traffic, which the left sees as a disguised offensive against the actions of yellow vests or climate activists.