The Senate began on Tuesday the examination in first reading of the orientation and programming bill of the Ministry of the Interior (Lopmi), which provides for a financial effort of 15 billion euros over five years, the controversial reform of the judicial police imposing themselves in the debates, although of a regulatory nature.
For the rapporteurs Marc-Philippe Daubresse (LR) and Loïc Hervé (centrist), the senatorial majority cannot “objectively” to oppose a text which gives more means to the Interior.
For Minister Gérald Darmanin, he is trying to respond to “five crises” which are “in front of us” : terrorist crisis, with a “terrorist threat all the more significant as it is modernized” ; crisis “of public order”with demonstrations “new formula” ; cyber crisis; crisis of violence and climate crisis.
As France prepares to host two major international sporting events in 2023 and 2024, the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games, Mr. Darmanin has designed a “black scenario for which we must prepare, which is both a terrorist attack, for example by a drone (…) and at the same time a cyber attack on hospitals”.
The draft reform of the PJ does not appear in the text, but the subject imposed itself from the start of the discussion, when several hundred police officers gathered calmly in Paris and Marseilles to mark their opposition to this project.
“The Lopmi is the antechamber of the upcoming reform carrying the departmentalization of the judicial police (…), synonymous with the intrusion of the executive power into the criminal procedure”attacked the president of the majority communist CRCE group Eliane Assassi.
“We can’t stay in a world that only refers to Clemenceau”, launched Mr. Darmanin. “We will continue to discuss”he said, reassuring the magistrates once again “who will always have the immense and entire responsibility for the investigations”.
The left unsuccessfully defended amendments to purge the report annexed to the Lopmi – which details the orientations of the ministry – of the paragraphs laying down the principle of a reorganization of the police.
Mr. Daubresse recalled that two fact-finding missions on the PJ reform project were underway in Parliament.
Essentially, Lopmi is planning an additional 15 billion euros in the budget over five years, of which “more than half, 8 billion, devoted to cyber and digital”, according to the minister. The 2023 budget is already part of this perspective, with an announced increase of +6% compared to 2022, to 22 billion euros.
The text provides for the creation of 8,500 police and gendarme posts, including “3,000 from 2023”according to the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne.
“Trial of intent”
To combat ever-increasing cybercrime, the bill allows seizures of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Regarding “ransomware” – ransom demands after a cyber attack -, it conditions reimbursement by insurance companies on the filing of a complaint by the victim.
The text also provides for more severe punishment “sexist outrage” and includes several measures to simplify criminal procedure.
Among the changes made in committee, the senators wish to increase the penalties incurred for refusal to comply, urban rodeos and violence against elected officials.
They restricted the extension of the tort fixed fine to a list of ten new offences. A point on which the minister indicated to line up.
Socialist amendments aim to facilitate the reception and access to online procedures for victims with disabilities.
In the evening, the Senate voted with the consent of the government of the amendments in favor of the communities and overseas for the reception of new brigades of gendarmerie.
Moments of tension between environmentalists and the minister or the right marked this first day.
“Since the beginning of this debate, our colleagues from the environmental group have been in the process of intention, in the stigmatization, in the desire to stir up tensions”, got carried away Mr. Daubresse, while the ecologists pointed “abusive or discriminatory identity checks”.
“You are always in control, the sanction, not thugs, but policemen”, launched the Minister. He had previously denounced “hurtful and false accusations” with regard to the police, considering that Guy Benarroche asserted “that some of the police are racist”.
Debates are due to continue until Thursday. A solemn vote will be organized on October 18, then the deputies will work in turn on the amended text. On the left, communists and ecologists will vote against, the socialists reserving their vote.