“I understand this emotion, this anger, this sadness” of the police, Gérald Darmanin said on Thursday. He spoke for the first time since the beginning of the crisis which agitated the police following the imprisonment of one of theirs in Marseille, suspected of having beaten a young man. The Minister of the Interior spoke at the exit of a police station in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, in front of the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez and the director general of the national police (DGPN) Frédéric Veaux.
The latter had caused an outcry by saying that “before a possible trial, a police officer has no place in prison”. Gérald Darmanin gave him his “full support”. “It’s quite legitimate, they have a fatigue, those of people who have been very mobilized,” said the Minister of the Interior about the agents engaged, especially during the urban riots.
Gérald Darmanin also indicated that “less than 5%” of the police “have taken sick leave or refused to go to work”, since the launch of the police protest movement.
Later in the evening, the Minister of the Interior received various police unions in Beauvau, still in the presence of Laurent Nuñez and Frédéric Veaux. Grégory Joron, from the SGP Police-FO Unit, expressed himself, looking satisfied, at the end of the meeting: “He [Darmanin] is not closed to anything, rather open to proposals”, he said. . “He understands the stakes well, especially on the question of the police profession. “We know that in a month and a half we will have concrete progress for the agents”, continues Grégory Joron, referring to the functional protection – lawyer’s fees, medical expenses – which should be improved.
“The police need to have guarantees, assurances. The fact that we were received by the minister with the prefect of police and the DGPN, it is a strong signal, abounds as for him Olivier Varlet, of Unsa. […] We ask to be treated like citizens, not that the police have a blank check to work, but that the presumption of innocence does not turn into a presumption of guilt. “According to him, “there will be a before and after of these events. It is a social debate, on the place of the policeman and his family. »
Regarding the police protest, Grégory Joron concedes: “The crisis cannot last six months, a year. The strength of the national police is that the vast majority of the population supports us. This must not turn against us, this pact with the citizens must not be broken because our actions are too long. If the facts are concrete, I hope that we will quickly emerge from the crisis. »