Friday afternoon, Emmanuel Macron spoke to the Presidential Press Association in Paris, but without cameras or microphones. The Head of State spontaneously addressed the issue of violence in society. Emmanuel Macron in particular denounced a "trivialization of violence", which in particular "hardened" at the end of confinement, and which requires "a rapid Republican response". A violence which, according to him, often begins on social networks before crystallizing in actions.
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"The violence we are talking about has several forms: there is the one we have known since 2016 on the occasion of public demonstrations, which is the fact of rather organized groups, extremists, which have an opportunist approach and are grafted into demonstrations for acts of violence. Then there is drug-related violence - the Covid has destabilized many networks - and then there is the violence of everyday life, "listed the Head of State.
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Should we see there a "wildness" as the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin asserts? Emmanuel Macron refutes this term, preferring to speak of trivialization, and believes that it is a long work which must begin at school but also passes by more means in the police force and speed in justice.
"I don't fear anything and don't get used to it"
The head of state claims to have already started this work and pleads for a new "republican patriotism". This somewhat obscure term is a notion that he promises to develop on September 4, during the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic.
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Security and justice issues are also among the "priorities" of the government seminar back to school on September 9. For the occasion, Emmanuel Macron said he had asked the Ministers of the Interior and of Justice "for some additional elements to the strategy, both to speed it up and to respond more effectively".
Emmanuel Macron also fears a movement of social violence in this return against a backdrop of economic and health crisis? "I do not make predictions. I do not fear anything and do not get used to it", replied the president.