The government wants to react after a shooting in broad daylight in a sensitive area of Nice. Shots were fired last Monday in front of a supermarket in the Moulins district, known in particular for being a place of drug trafficking in the Côte d'Azur city. Prime Minister Jean Castex denounced Thursday "deeply inadmissible acts" and announced that he would go there, with Justice Ministers Eric Dupond-Moretti and Interior Ministers Gerald Darmanin. A visit that is part of the fight against insecurity, set up as a priority by Jean Castex in his general policy speech on July 15.
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A shooting in a neighborhood known to be a place of drug trafficking
A video of the facts, posted online by a resident of the Moulins district, caused a stir on social networks and within the political class. In this sequence, we hear gunshots and we see men running in the distance, under the eyes of customers at the entrance of the supermarket. According to residents, this is the second shooting "in less than a month" in this area known to be a place of drug trafficking. At least two people have been shot dead in the Moulins district in recent years, in what each time has appeared to be a settling of scores in the eyes of investigators.
"Almost all of the inhabitants of this district want to live normally and there is a minority of pissers who must absolutely be confused by the law so that the force remains in the republican authority", hammered the Minister of Interior Gérald Darmanin, on a surprise visit Thursday in Nice. It is because there was "a very important seizure of drugs on July 10 that there were these unacceptable events", he then estimated during a press point in front of a police station.
Christian Estrosi caught on Wednesday night
On Monday, the mayor (LR) of Nice Christian Estrosi asked for "additional resources" and an "immediate action plan to restore order", judging the situation in the Moulins district "very worrying". 60 CRS were thus sent as reinforcements by the Ministry of the Interior. The mayor of Nice was also taken to task on Wednesday, during a surprise visit. "Here we are threatened by stray bullets", "we want help", launched some residents during a sequence filmed by BFMTV. But the discussion quickly grew tense, to the point that Christian Estrosi and the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, also present, were forced to leave the premises under insults and after a projectile throw.
"When we see a prefect and a courageous mayor being unwelcome in a neighborhood, it is not acceptable," denounced Gérald Darmanin. "All the elected officials and all the citizens are at home everywhere in the Republic. There is no lawless zone, so I come where the police sometimes do their job with difficulty, to take back territories from the traffickers of drugs that poison the life of neighborhoods, "continued the Minister of the Interior, who appeared alongside Christian Estrosi.
"There are deeply inadmissible acts. I will be going to Nice very soon and we will make concrete announcements to fight against these inadmissible acts", reacted for his part Jean Castex, on the sidelines of a trip to Besançon for the youth employment.