• Thousands of police gathered on Wednesday in front of the National Assembly, two weeks after the murder of Brigadier Eric Masson.

  • Many elected officials from the right, from the RN and from the left participated in the mobilization.

  • But some union demands - such as floor sentences - and the presence of elected RNs, led to divisions on the left on this rally.

This may be one of those moments that kick off presidential campaigns.

Thousands of police gathered in front of the National Assembly on Wednesday, two weeks after the murder of Brigadier Eric Masson.

Union flags in hand, they demanded a stronger criminal response, such as the establishment of minimum sentences - irreducible minimum sentences - for police attackers.

But the demonstration, which took place in the rain for a good part of the afternoon, also turned into a political event.

Due to the unexpected and criticized presence of Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior and the first cop of France.

And by the division of the leaders of the left on their participation or not in this demonstration, revealing the fractures of each camp on the security.

Many socialists, Yannick Jadot isolated

In the middle of the crowd bordered by the Seine and the Bourbon Palace, it is difficult to spot the elected officials of the left who have announced their arrival, such as the PS mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo or the Communist presidential candidate, Fabien Roussel. But the Socialist deputies had the good idea to wear their tricolor scarf and clash in the black and blue mass. Olivier Faure in the lead: "It's important to be there to tell the republican police that we are on these sides and that we understand what they are going through", assures the First Secretary of the PS at the microphone of BFMTV. The police “are permanently exposed to attacks […]. We must reconcile the French with their police and everyone understands that they are exposed to difficulties, ”he adds, while saying he is opposed to the return of minimum sentences.

A little further, isolated, Yannick Jadot also supports the demonstrators.

“Our police are suffering, we must listen to them.

I am here to express my attachment to a republican police force, so that it is given the means to carry out its mission, ”says EELV MEP.

At the microphone, a union official attacks the justice system, and the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.

"I do not support claims that want to pillory justice and magistrates," Jadot continues.

My presence here is also so as not to let the police be manipulated by the National Rally or instrumentalised by the government.

Because there would be many representatives of the RN, it will be necessary to give up the police force?

"

Mélenchon denounces a "demonstration of an ostensibly factious nature"

Yannick Jadot here sweeps away the criticisms of his presence in a demonstration also supported by Les Républicains, the National Rally, Philippe de Villiers or Eric Zemmour, and in which his party like his rivals in the primary refused to participate, denouncing “Attempts at political recovery”.

“Jadot is a big boy, he goes where he wants.

But I have doubts about the way in which this demonstration is carried, and on its location, in front of the Assembly, which leaves a funny aftertaste, slices David Cormand, MEP and former boss of environmentalists.

When you go to a march, you have to look at all the slogans, and especially those that you cannot condone.

It is not for the police to guide the legal question.

"

Like the ecologists, the rebels also refused to participate in the mobilization, Jean-Luc Mélenchon describing it as a “demonstration of an ostensibly factious nature” during a press conference on Wednesday.

"It is not attacking the causes for which these unfortunate people were murdered, but institutions such as the judiciary," added the LFI presidential candidate.

These debates should agitate the left a little more in the coming months, as security seems to be emerging as one of the central themes of the next presidential election.

Justice

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  • Paris

  • France rebellious

  • PS

  • EELV

  • Left

  • Demonstration

  • National Assembly

  • Police officer