A few minutes before questions to the government, this Tuesday, July 4, the room of the Four Columns turns into a hive. The sky is overcast, the deputies parade between the cameras, the visitors in T-shirts and the preparations of the Republican Guard. “It’s going to be hot,” the ushers of the Palais-Bourbon whisper among themselves.
The atmosphere following several nights of violent riots was finally rather calmed with a session punctuated by moments of union on all the benches of the hemicycle: minute of silence in honor of Léon Gautier, the last French survivor of the D-Day landings in Normandy who died this week, tribute to Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun and his family.
Also on the front line, Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupond-Moretti. The Minister of the Interior criticized the RN by paraphrasing Ségolène Royal’s “just order”. “We don’t want hate from the police or hate from foreigners. We want the love of the Republic,” he said. The Keeper of the Seals renamed La France insoumise “La France incendiary”.
The other ministers arrested, in particular Olivier Klein in Housing and Pap Ndiaye in Education, have moved into the background. The first delivered a speech in the form of complacency about his record. As for the second, yet capable of terrorizing dozens of high school students during the Sciences Po admission oral, he seemed unsure of himself in the face of the cries of the Insoumis, painfully shelling out already existing measures: splitting of classes, learning holiday device , creation of 12 educational cities… The other ministers had their noses in their colorful pockets and their papers, or tapped on their mobile phones.
Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister had brought together all the components of the majority. Renaissance, the MoDem and Horizons in full force for the first time since Nahel’s death and the riots to “present the government’s action in the face of urban violence”. No precise plan in reality, but rather the repetition of announcements already known: more police officers, firmness of the criminal response, still nebulous reflection on the regulation of social networks and emphasis on parental responsibility. Salle Colbert, the Macronist deputies made “recoveries on what is happening in their constituencies”, reports Marie Lebec, elected from Yvelines.
The strategy of the majority is clear: to fracture the Nupes by sending LFI and the RN back to back, as Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance group, did in the hemicycle. “There is LFI which sorts out what can be burned or not and there is the far right which only talks about thugs”, she denounced. “I salute the reactions worthy of the PS and Fabien Roussel,” said Marie Lebec, driving the point home.
The news also revives some divisions within the macronist camp. Some, on the right wing, did not appreciate that Sacha Houlié, president of the Law Commission, praised the action of Christiane Taubira during the opening of the debates on the justice law, this Monday, July 3. Constance Le Grip and Laure Miller, from LR, did not applaud this part of the speech.
On the left wing, we plead, like Caroline Janvier, for the response not to be simply security. “We must not be afraid,” she explains to Le Point. We have seen violent demonstrations. Beyond the necessary restoration of order, there is a deeper reflection to be had on the associative fabric of the districts, the local police and even on the supervised legalization of cannabis. Of course, that’s not going to fix everything. “Frankly, cannabis is not the subject,” said MP Stéphane Mazars, visibly annoyed by this “magic wand solutions competition”.
“During the intergroup meeting, we were still flabbergasted, confides the deputy of Paris Fanta Berete in a garden of the Assembly. This is the word that came up the most. On the other hand, I regret that the word racism was never mentioned. Racism exists in society; we have to hear it. As a visible minority, I know what it is. There is also a topic on the targeting of allocated resources. In my constituency, there were only two street workers on the Friday of the riots. »
Currently, the majority is monopolized by the examination of the texts on justice of Dupond-Moretti, which aim to increase the means and to facilitate the access to the magistrature. Erwan Balanant, MoDem deputy and co-rapporteur of the bill, fears that “the current context does not help to have a serious and dispassionate reflection on the subject”. LR intends to raise the stakes by demanding “systematic incarceration”, and the Nupes conversely defends the idea of ??”prison regulation”.
A tension that risks reactivating the left-right divide on the side of government supporters. Caroline Abadie, Renaissance deputy, worked with the communist Elsa Faucillon to put in place a cap of 100% incarceration in remand prisons. An idea swept away by the executive, who fears the “laxity” trials of the right and the RN, which could extend to its own electorate, in demand for order and firmness.
