Emmanuel Macron denounced on Thursday the “irresponsible behavior that kills” during a tribute to the three police officers who were victims of a driver and called for respect for those who “risk their lives” for others as the debate mounts in the face of repeated violence aimed at public and elected officials.
“At the sight of your three coffins, there is only amazement in the face of injustice and the absurd”, launched the Head of State, accompanied by his wife Brigitte and the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, in the courtyard of the National Police School in Roubaix (North), where he had detailed a series of reforms at the end of the Beauvau security in September 2021.
The three police officers, Paul Medeiros, Manon Raux and Steven Greblac, aged 24 and 25, were killed in the North on Sunday in a collision with a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction driven by a heavily alcoholic and cannabis-positive man, him -even died in the accident.
In front of the three coffins brought in a funeral drum roll, Emmanuel Macron asked for “respect and consideration” for those who serve and protect” and pointed to “irresponsible behavior that kills”.
The Head of State, who the day before spoke of a form of “decivilization” in the country, thus made the link with the nurse of the CHU of Reims killed Monday by a man suffering from psychiatric disorders and all the violence aimed at security forces. the order, health professionals, firefighters, teachers or elected officials.
Emmanuel Macron, who had first spoken with the families, presented the Legion of Honor posthumously to Paul Medeiros, whose companion is pregnant, Steven Greblac, father of a little boy, and Manon Raux who had studied physio before choosing the police. The little boy and the unborn child will now be wards of the Nation.
The three police officers were transporting in their car a 16-year-old girl, victim of an attack, who was seriously injured in the accident.
In the public, in front of a large screen set up outside the school, colleagues and relatives of police officers paid tribute to the three victims.
“He had barely started his career as a police officer that it ended like this, it’s dramatic. It could have been avoided within five seconds, ten seconds,” lamented Charles, Paul’s former colleague.
“They are there to protect us but who protects them? It is time for the state to put in place real means for the police”, wondered Ludivine Decoopman, wife of a police officer from the Roubaix police station, judging that the presence of President Macron was of little importance.
Remarks relayed by Linda Kebbab, union representative Unit SGP Police-Force Ouvrière, who denounced at the end of the ceremony an “inability to fight against criminals of the road” and “an increase in violence” targeting in particular the forces of order.
Emmanuel Macron had upset his agenda to go to this tribute. In the aftermath of a long social and political crisis on the question of pensions, he had already called on his ministers on Wednesday to “work in depth to counter this process of decivilization”.
The expression, taken up by the far right, in particular by the writer Renaud Camus, cantor of the theory of the “Great replacement”, is much criticized.
But the president’s entourage evokes “a search term that is not preempted by one camp or another” and which calls for “deeper introspection on the ills of society today”.
The resignation of the mayor of Saint-Brevin (Loire-Atlantique), Yannick Morez, under constant pressure and threat from the far right, the intimidation suffered by deputies and local elected officials cannot be put “on the same level” as the dramas of Reims and Roubaix, insists the entourage of the head of state, because “they do not have the same cause”.
However, the presidential camp denounces in unison “a society in which violence is indeed exacerbated” and becomes “ordinary violence”, in the words Thursday of the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet.
Speaking of “decivilization”, “Emmanuel Macron has once again proven us right”, rejoiced Marine Le Pen for her part on Thursday, also denouncing “morally disarmed” police officers.
05/25/2023 17:01:37 – Roubaix (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
