The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, unveils in an interview with Le Parisien broadcast online Sunday, August 1 in the evening, the 2020 report "of" the "violent deaths within the couple", which must be published on Monday.

If 102 women - and 23 men - lost their lives in 2020 in these circumstances, the lowest figure for 15 years while in 2019 there were 146 feminicides, the minister underlines that last year was special with "two confinements".

Nevertheless, he continues, "the number of police and gendarmerie interventions for domestic violence remains very high: more than 400,000, or 45 interventions per hour".

"Not a day goes by without the GIGN or the Raid going to free a woman or children taken hostage ..."

Gérald Darmanin notes that domestic violence "is becoming the main reason for intervention by police and gendarmes".

In an attempt to fight against this scourge, the Minister of the Interior announces in particular the priority treatment of complaints for domestic violence, an officer specializing in this violence in each police station and each gendarmerie brigade.

Learning the lessons of Mérignac's feminicide

He also draws the lessons of the feminicide of Mérignac, on May 4, particularly atrocious, for which he had requested an inspection mission.

This mission had concluded in its report to a multitude of failures which had led to Chahinez, 31, being burned alive in the street by her ex-spouse, after he had shot her in the legs to make her fall. 

Gérald Darmanin had asked the inspection mission for a new report to identify the responsibilities.

The report submitted to the Prime Minister last week has not been made public.

While Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that a police officer who took one of Chahinez's complaints had himself been convicted of domestic violence and was awaiting a visit to the disciplinary council, the minister qualified this situation as "unacceptable" .

And announces to have asked the boss of the national police force to seize the IGPN, the "police force of the police forces", which will have to submit its report in 6 weeks.

The minister also asks that the disciplinary councils meet "within three months maximum" in this type of case and that the police officer concerned is "no longer in contact with the public" pending a decision of the council.

To ensure a better follow-up of these situations, the Minister emphasizes the instruction given to the police officers and gendarmes to make "a report to the prosecutor", the objective being that "100% of the findings turn into a complaint or report". 

Handrails are also “definitively” banned.

Cross-referencing of firearms files

To cope with an increased number of procedures (193,000 last year), Gérald Darmanin promises to promote the recruitment of judicial police officers.

In addition, he wants each department to have "teams specializing in the fight against domestic violence" (family protection brigade in the police zone; family protection house in the gendarmerie zone).

From "the end of August", a national official will be appointed to the Director General of the National Police (DGPN), the Director General of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN) and the Prefect of Police "on the model of what exists in terms of terrorism and drugs ".

Finally, concerning firearms - a third of women are killed by firearms - the Minister wants the file of people implicated for intra-marital violence to be connected to those of owners of weapons and prohibitions of port, and that the police "systematically" consult them.

"This will make it possible, he said, to verify whether a defendant" for such acts of violence "is in possession of a weapon and therefore to withdraw it from him, without even the testimony of his spouse".

With AFP

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