Paris (AFP)

"More blue on the ground": Emmanuel Macron launches a new offensive on security, one of the key subjects of the presidential election of 2022, by promising to keep his objective of 10,000 additional police and gendarmes and by fighting against drug trafficking "the mother of battles".

"Each French person will see more blue on the ground in 2022 than in 2017. It reassures people, it dissuades delinquents. I am fighting for the right to a peaceful life," said the head of state in an interview with Figaro published Sunday evening, on the eve of a trip to Montpellier on this topic of security.

This sovereign subject is erected as one of the priorities of the executive for the end of the quinquennium while it remains identified as one of the Achilles heels of Emmanuel Macron, especially facing the right.

In Le Figaro, the Head of State defends his record step by step, at a time when France "must face a sharp increase in violence against people, which particularly targets those who hold authority", admits- he.

To fight this violence, he promises that he will go "to the end of this plan of the 10,000" members of the additional security forces promised by the end of the five-year term.

“Today 4,508 police officers and 1,706 gendarmes have already been recruited, ie 6,214 members of the police”.

"We will have in addition, from this year, 2,000 police and gendarmes more" of which "the essential" will go "directly on the public highway".

The Head of State also announces the creation in Montpellier, where 50 additional police officers will come in reinforcement by the end of 2002, of a "war school with continuous training" for the police officers as well as the modernization of their uniform and replacing the cap with a cap.

He is counting heavily on the deployment of pedestrian cameras, as part of the comprehensive security law just adopted in Parliament: "they will change everything", because they will help "prevent slippages" and "inhibit violent people".

In the Figaro, the head of state also returns to "police violence", an expression he used in December but to immediately contradict it.

This was nevertheless criticized by the police unions and the right-wing opposition, including Xavier Bertrand, a potential rival in 2022, again this Sunday.

This time, he wants to be extremely clear: "There is no systemic violence of the police, it is wrong; there is no systemic racism of the police, it is wrong, no more than there are none in the gendarmerie or within the State ".

- "Until the last quarter of an hour" -

But he repeats that facial control is a reality.

"If in all the polls, all the field surveys, young people tell you that they undergo face checks, tell them: + no, there isn't any, it's a feeling you have +, c it is as foolish as to go and explain to people: + you may feel insecure, but it is not a reality. "

Regarding the proliferation of violent settling of accounts between gangs, Emmanuel Macron notes that drug trafficking "explodes" and "forms the economic matrix of violence in our country".

"Eradicating them by all means has become the mother of battles, since drugs innervate certain separatist networks but also everyday delinquency.

He says the government is shifting "into high gear" by "harassing traffickers and drug dealers".

"Of the 4,000 deal points listed recently, more than 1,000 punch operations have been carried out in recent weeks. And every day, we close a deal point," he said.

He adds that "70,000 fixed tort fines have been drawn up since September" for consumers.

"France has become a country of consumption and therefore, we must break this taboo, launch a major national debate on drug consumption and its deleterious effects", he wishes, without detailing how this consultation could be conducted.

According to him, the consumer must understand that when he "rolls a joint in his living room", he "feeds the most important source of insecurity".

Entering the debate on the legalization of so-called "recreational" cannabis, the use of which is prohibited, Emmanuel Macron maintains that "to say that hashish is innocent is more than a lie": "Cognitively, the effects are disastrous . "

On security, as on "the economy and industry, on reforms, on social issues, on education, on the environment", Emmanuel Macron promises that he will act "until the last quarter of an hour "of his mandate, despite the Covid-19 crisis.

© 2021 AFP