On Europe 1, Tuesday morning, Xavier Bertrand proposed "an automatic prison sentence" for attackers of police officers, with a "minimum of one year not suitable". After being criticized by his political opponents, the presidential candidate defended his idea, which he said would respect "the fundamental principles of criminal law".

Xavier Bertrand, candidate (ex-LR) declared for the presidential election of 2022, proposed Tuesday to modify the Constitution to be able to condemn to "automatic sentences" the attackers of police officers "at the end of a trial".

"I will ask the French to vote" in the fall of 2022 on a modification of the Constitution so that "when we attack a police officer, a gendarme, a firefighter, a mayor, there will be an automatic minimum prison sentence of one year not suitable for conversion, "said the president of Hauts-de-France on Europe 1 on Tuesday morning.

>> Find the full interview with Xavier Bertrand on Europe 1 Tuesday morning

With such a text, "there could not have been an acquittal" in the appeal trial of the violent assault of police officers in Viry-Châtillon, in Essonne, in 2016, for which five young people were sentenced on Saturday to sentences ranging from six to 18 years in prison and eight others acquitted.

The 13 were accused of having been part of the twenty hooded people who attacked two police cars with Molotov cocktails.

Principle of "co-action"

On his Facebook account, Xavier Bertrand then explained that "the automatic minimum sentence is simply the guarantee that when the person is found guilty, and if and only if the trial concludes his guilt, he is sentenced to a sentence minimum prison sentence, without reprieve, without possible sentence adjustment ". 

I fully assume that the criminal law can set automatic minimum sentences when necessary.



➡️ https://t.co/gkMohpCgEhpic.twitter.com/aMCtXT2uDX

- Xavier Bertrand (@xavierbertrand) April 20, 2021

Xavier Bertrand also invoked with AFP a principle of "co-action" where, "from the moment when people are convinced of having participated in the action (...), you have a minimum sentence".

"When you are engaged in a gang, a gathering that is guilty of violence, the penalties of some are worth the penalties of others," he said.

It remains "a sentence pronounced by a court, there is respect for the adversarial, a file, evidence", but according to him "it is the only way to break impunity" because "in this process of decivilization, he is important to mark a real stop ".

Critics from the majority

Xavier Bertrand insisted that with this proposal, "we respect the fundamental principles of criminal law".

Thus "the individualization (of the sentence, Editor's note) remains", but "in such a way that it does not prevent the application of a mandatory minimum sentence", and for that "we need a change of the Constitution" , he added.

This proposal had strongly reacted the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, according to whom it would amount to "automatically send to prison any person arrested without proof or trial". "No police officer, no magistrate will agree to substitute the principle of Justice for the logic of the raid," he said on Twitter - a reaction described as "unworthy" by the president of Hauts-de-France. "Protect those who protect us, yes. Break our most fundamental rights, no", also reacted on Twitter the general delegate of En Marche, Stanislas Guerini.