It did not take long to dispel any ambiguity about Bruno Retailleau’s priorities, if there was any. On Monday 23 September, when he took office in Beauvau, the new Minister of the Interior presented them in a formula that is more of an incantation than a programme: “Restore order, restore order, restore order.” »
By materializing the hard line that he has chosen to embody, he is undoubtedly performing a first “publicity stunt” by ensuring immediate coverage on the news channels and on social networks. But, to be striking, this slogan is a little short. And it will take more than a kind of security hocus-pocus to improve a situation that makes Place Beauvau fully worthy of its nickname. “Ministry of Emergencies”.
The situation is deteriorating abroad, where two Kanaks were shot dead in New Caledonia by the GIGN on Thursday 19 September, and where clashes between police and demonstrators broke out in Martinique in the context of a new denunciation of the high cost of living; the level of homicides and attempted murders on the drug front has rarely been equalled; the terrorist threat remains present: at the same time as his ministerial portfolio, Bruno Retailleau inherits a tense, if not poisonous, climate. Even the appointments of the new directors general of the police and the gendarmerie cannot be delayed in the slightest: on 29 September, the current holders of the post, Frédéric Veaux for the police, Christian Rodriguez for the gendarmerie, will officially leave their posts.
“We should never criticize our police officers”
It is pointless, in these circumstances, to consider even the slightest aggiornamento of certain police practices or any reflection on the thorny question of relations between the police and the population. Moreover, on this subject, Mr. Retailleau has long formed the following opinion: “We should never criticize our police officers,” He declared in April 2017, while he was acting as coordinator of François Fillon’s campaign. On Monday, on the occasion of his first formal outing, the minister did it again in the courtyard of the Invalides where he presided over the ceremony of farewell to the arms of the ” boss “ of the gendarmerie, General Christian Rodríguez: “To the police, I will never give up, I will not surrender and I will not tolerate any attack, any offense. »
By appointing a minister delegate in charge of day-to-day security, assigned to Nicolas Daragon, the Minister of the Interior sent a first signal about his method, perhaps inspired by a tried and tested process, from Charles Pasqua to Christophe Castaner. The first with Robert Pandraud, the second with Laurent Nuñez, current prefect of police in Paris, had already hired the services of security technicians. But this time, instead of a senior official, Retailleau chose a local elected official, mayor of Valence (Drôme), a city affected by drug trafficking, and vice-president of the Association of Mayors of France.
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