The move had not been announced in advance. The Élysée announced that Emmanuel Macron went Monday evening to the police in Paris to provide them with his “support” after several nights of riots which mobilized imposing means of police and gendarmerie .
The Head of State first went with his Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to the Bessières barracks, in the 17th arrondissement of the capital, which hosts the staff of the BAC (anti-crime brigade) at night and departmental intervention companies.
He exchanged with members of the police force, the gendarmerie, the CRS, members of the BRI (research and intervention brigade), firefighters, according to his entourage. “He wanted to be present at their side” to “thank them for their mobilization in recent days and assure them of his support”, the same source added.
This is his first field trip since the death of 17-year-old Nahel, killed last Tuesday in Nanterre by a police officer after refusing to obey a check, and the urban violence that followed for several nights.
In the process, after midnight, he went to the Paris police headquarters, for new exchanges, then specified the Elysée. The executive asked to maintain “a massive presence” on “the ground”, “to reinforce the return to calm and order”, his entourage told AFP.
Later that night, the Head of State thanked the police, gendarmes and firefighters in a tweet for “(their) exceptional mobilization in recent nights”.
“Police, gendarmes, firefighters, thank you for your exceptional mobilization these last nights. I know how difficult these have been for you and your families. You have my support,” Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter.
Police, gendarmes, firefighters, thank you for your exceptional mobilization over the past few nights. I know how difficult these have been for you and your families. You have my support. pic.twitter.com/0aKm7EiHcg
The night system of the previous days, i.e. a maximum staff of 45,000 police and gendarmes, was thus maintained overnight from Monday to Tuesday, without any major incident recorded in the evening.
The number of arrests in Île-de-France fell Monday evening, as on previous nights: 5 to 11:30 p.m. against around forty the day before and more than 400 last Thursday.
Emmanuel Macron is due to receive the mayors of some 220 municipalities “victims of abuse” across the country on Tuesday. With this consultation of local elected officials, the president “wishes to begin meticulous and longer-term work to understand in depth the reasons which led to these events”, indicated the Elysée.