In the News: how to get out of the trap of Article 24?

Audio 04:28

The French Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, during the debate on the “global security” bill, at the National Assembly in Paris, November 20, 2020. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

By: Frédéric Couteau Follow

9 min

Publicity

That's the question of the day in the newspapers on Monday.

This famous article 24 of the law on global security, currently under construction, penalizes, let us remember, the malicious dissemination of the image of the police.

And meets the hostility of a large part of public opinion and the political world.

What is more, points out

Le Figaro

, “ 

in the extension of the demonstrations of Saturday everywhere in France, the demand does not relate only to article 24, but to the whole of the text.

[…] Bad sign for the executive, it is all the left which is united on the subject […].

On the right, where we rather supported the text, we no longer have any illusions about its future, starting with article 24 "already buried by the government", according to Xavier Bertrand.

Even within the majority, the hypothesis is also mentioned

.

"

For its part, the government persists and signs, notes

Le Figaro

 : ""

The withdrawal of article 24 is not on the agenda, assures a close friend of the Minister of the Interior. question of removing it at this point ".

Gérald Darmanin will defend it this Monday before the National Assembly's Law Commission.

 "

Disintegration

So, beyond this legislative and societal tug of war, we can only note " 

the great disintegration

 " which cracks France, analyzes

Le Figaro

: "Article 24, in reality, should occupy our minds less than the crisis. of

authority that undermines our country,

writes the right

.

The most serious symptoms are the policeman who dishonors his uniform, the thug who defiles his demonstration.

But public cowardice in the face of ordinary violence, the bankruptcy of the school, the dislocation of sociability, the bureaucracy are no less guilty.

When the authority rests only on the decree,

concludes

Le Figaro, it collects indiscipline in the facts.

 "

To change direction ?

Les Echos

insist on the president's intransigence.

For him, no question of changing course: " 

As the word" dead end "is banned from his world, Emmanuel Macron wants to act, and quickly,

points the economic daily

.

Receive Michel Zecler (the music producer attacked by police officers last week), as relatives suggest, but also try to keep article 24;

reform the IGPN (the General Inspectorate of the National Police), but not replace Darmanin.

And act on the rest, in particular by presenting the vaccine strategy.

The vaccine, double rescuer,

exclaim

Les Echos: of the Covid and the political impasse.

 "

No, for

Liberation

, the executive is playing the clock and that is not a good calculation.

“ 

After the massive mobilization across France on Saturday, the government continues to let the situation get bogged down rather than consider a withdrawal of article 24 which would weaken Gerald Darmanin.

[…] By insisting on not letting go, neither article 24 nor his Minister of the Interior, Emmanuel Macron knowingly chooses rotting.

A risky political calculation, the consistency of which is hard to see with the call to restore "confidence" launched by the Head of State.

 "

Broken trust

What greater insecurity than living in a country where citizens no longer trust their peacekeepers? 

asks

Humanity.

Gérald Darmanin has gone so far that his law is already turning into a political crisis.

[…] However, Emmanuel Macron, who is responsible for withdrawing this text, has so far been content to cover his minister and ensure the minimum service.

The president,

still deplores the communist daily

, so prolix in explaining to the French how to ventilate their interior, is much more stingy in denouncing police violence and expressing himself on this absurd and dangerous bill.

 "

In fact, denounces

Mediapart

, " 

beyond the rewrites to which the text on global security will be subject in the coming weeks, even beyond the proposals that Gérald Darmanin could begin to evoke on Monday, a question haunts the supporters Emmanuel Macron's most uncomfortable ones: how can one still believe what he says when so many promises have been broken?

[…] For three years, fundamental freedoms and individual rights have continued to decline,

believes

Mediapart

.

And many, despite denials of power, have now understood.

 "

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Newspaper

  • France