- The municipal elections are held on March 15 and 22, 2020. Each Monday, 20 Minutes will address a theme of the campaign. Security today.
- Almost all of the candidates ask for a reinforcement of the municipal police force.
- On the other hand, they differ on the means to ensure the safety of Strasbourg residents during major events or on a daily basis in transport and on the streets.
In Strasbourg as elsewhere, security is a flagship theme for municipal elections. Over-security of the city center, urban violence, municipal police, aggressive anti-begging order ... 20 Minutes asked the main candidates their program for the city.
What place for the municipal police?
Everyone (or almost) agrees on this topic. The candidates ask for a reinforcement of manpower and a greater proximity near the population. As well as a reorientation of the tasks currently assigned to them. Without forgetting better material conditions to carry out their missions. Only Jeanne Barseghian prefers to “put meaning back into the missions of the municipal police”, by including its representatives.
Alain Fontanel (LREM) wants a more "visible and accessible police in all districts". He proposed the creation of “fixed or mobile municipal police houses”. An idea shared by Jean-Philippe Vetter (LR) who also wants to create a "municipal police hotel". But above all "refocus the missions [of the police] on security instead of the verbalization of cars". At the PS, Mathieu Cahn proposes squarely the creation of a "motorized brigade specially dedicated to heavy goods vehicle controls", to fight against "particulate emissions". As well as a "municipal equestrian brigade to carry out prevention actions".
Even stronger, the RN candidate, who also wants a mounted police, also puts on a "canine brigade". And promises to "increase the police force by 20%", to arm them with "semi-automatic pistols", with "telescopic metal defense sticks" ... in order to renew equipment deemed obsolete.
What future for the anti-begging decree?
When it was put in place, the “aggressive” anti-begging decree divided Strasbourg residents and elected officials. This is still the case during the campaign. Some ask for its reinforcement, like the candidate LR Jean-Philippe Vetter who speaks out for his "firm application". RN side, the candidate Hombeline du Parc decides for a hardening of the decree, which she judges "insufficient". It requires a jumble of "day and night" controls and the removal of the "shooting room", which it says reinforces "the presence of drug addicts".
On the contrary, the LREM candidate Alain Fontanel denounces "a simplistic and incomplete answer to a real problem". It proposes the establishment of "prevention and support patrols" and the creation of "public space mediators" to put an end to incivility and facilitate contact with the inhabitants and traders of the city center. Green candidate Jeanne Barseghian wants to delete it outright, criticizing a "stigmatizing measure that generates amalgams". It intends to rely on "existing legal tools" to overcome conflict situations. An opinion that partly shares his socialist opponent. Mathieu Cahn "remains very questionable about the interest of this decree" and, like her, recommends the presence of "specialized mediators and educators" in the field.
How to deal with urban violence?
All the candidates obviously condemn urban violence. Especially those for New Years. Alain Fontanel intends to exercise "himself" skills in matters of security. Proximity, prevention on the ground and above all the increased presence of "neighborhood watchers and janitors", says the LREM candidate. Same opinion for Jeanne Barseghian who wants to put more "all the actors" around the table. In order to make the city "a public safety coordinator". Mathieu Cahn, for his part, proposes "to convene a consensus conference on this subject as soon as he takes office" with professionals and stakeholders in the neighborhood.
Conversely, the candidate LR Jean-Philippe Vetter intends "to increase the presence of the police on the ground in uniform and in civilian clothes". He also wants to punish the parents of minors arrested during the violence. His adversary RN Hombeline du Parc goes further and takes up the proposals of the Marine Le Pen party at the national level: introduction of a curfew on certain evenings, suspension of social benefits for delinquents and their families…
The video surveillance in question
The cameras are almost everywhere. Jean-Philippe Vetter (LR) intends to further extend this device, and even systematize it for the surveillance of bicycle poles, in order to avoid theft. Distrustful, Mathieu Cahn (PS), says he is "favorable" to "the contribution of video in road safety, today for prohibited and dangerous parking lots, tomorrow to systematize the prohibition of certain perimeters of the city in vehicle categories ".
A completely different sign for Hombeline du Parc (RN). Deemed an essential tool in large cities, it regrets, however, "its use which has flaws" and wants a joint command center between national and municipal police. The opposite of environmentalists who say they are always very reserved with regard to video surveillance. Jeanne Barshegian, like Mathieu Cahn, worries about possible ethical drifts. Without being really opposed to video surveillance, it questions its financial cost in terms of its efficiency and respect for freedoms.
Safety in public transport
The urban trams and buses have not been spared either from violence and incivility in recent years. In response, the president of the CTS, the current LREM candidate Alain Fontanel had defended free transport for the police and the gendarmes but also the intensification of actions to control the police. A device he obviously intends to extend. “Obvious” also for RN and LR candidates. With in addition an education component recommended by Jean-Philippe Vetter (LR) to "instill a true culture of respect", even if it means sanctioning. Safety in public transport is even "a priority" for the socialist Mathieu Cahn. It proposes "the establishment of a real transport security unit".
Before a possible reinforcement of controls, Jeanne Barshegian proposes "to initiate a dialogue between the various actors (State, CTS ...) to bring the adapted means, to make an inventory of fixtures". She underlines that it is "not only for the city to provide solutions" and prefers "mediators to prevent problems of incivility or conflict situations".
How to secure major events?
All the candidates agree that it would be necessary to review the security of major events in Strasbourg, like the Christmas Market. Jean-Philippe Vetter (LR) judges the current system "absurd". If elected mayor, he will ask for the end of the checkpoint system, which he says is ineffective, and will propose "a complete overhaul of the security of the Christmas market with reinforced and less intrusive surveillance". The LREM candidate and first deputy Alain Fontanel also recognizes "the end of a cycle" and wishes "to put everything back on track". Same position on the side of the green Jeanne Barseghian who promises to "reformat the event" and "release the pressure on the city center".
His socialist opponent Mathieu Cahn wants to "re-examine the principle which consists in making the hypercentre a bubble throughout the Christmas market". For the RN candidate, the "hypersecurity" of the city is due to "the Islamist threat". Hombeline du Parc makes the link with "the mosque projects in Meinau and Hautepierre" and wants "delinquent acts" to be treated in a "relentless" manner, without further details on the scope of these measures.
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- Strasbourg
- Public transport
- municipal
- security
- Local police
- Christmas market