Given on the departure on many occasions, it is finally without loss or crash, in the torpor of the summer, that Didier Lallement will leave the head of the powerful prefecture of police of Paris.
After more than three years spent on the Ile de la Cité, this unsinkable senior official, renowned for his firmness and his coldness, should see his mission come to an end at the end of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday July 20.
“Good riddance”, rejoiced the deputy of Nupes and the coordinator of insubordinate France, Adrien Quatennens, denouncing “the brutal methods” of the prefect of Police.
At the other end of the political spectrum, Florian Philippot of the Patriots hailed the "best news of the summer".
Rarely in recent history has a prefect of police aroused so much hostility.
It must be said that this enthusiast of the Foreign Legion, was not appointed by Emmanuel Macron, in March 2019, to become popular.
He was given the primary objective of restoring order after the third act of the Yellow Vests movement, marked by the ransacking of the Arc de Triomphe on December 1, 2018, or the intrusion of demonstrators a month later. late in the ministry of Secretary of State Benjamin Griveaux.
Controversial methods
“He arrives with a clear roadmap which consists of breaking with the methods of his predecessor [Michel Delpuech] deemed too soft”, recalls Olivier Renaudie, professor of public law at the Sorbonne.
The police and gendarmerie forces are now called upon to come into contact with the demonstrators, even if it means provoking direct clashes.
In the wake of his appointment, the demonstrations of Yellow Vests gave rise to scenes of police violence that shocked public opinion.
To accomplish the task assigned to him, Didier Lallement uses and abuses, according to his detractors, controversial methods: massive use of tear gas, firing of LBD launchers and sound blast grenades, systematic use of the trap, a encirclement technique that the Council of State will end up ruling as illegal in September 2020.
"To make up for it, he also called on services that were not specialized in maintaining order and it was these who were the most fragile on the ground and may have had the most problematic behavior" , adds Olivier Renaudie.
From the forceful evacuation of migrants from Place de la République in November 2020, to the fiasco of the Stade de France for which the prefect of police recognized "a failure", his management of maintaining order is regularly criticized by the opposition and human rights associations.
Loyalty to Emmanuel Macron
Over the months, this former socialist close to Jean-Pierre Chevènement has become a scarecrow for the opposition, which sees him as a symbol of a supposed authoritarian turn in Macron's first five-year term as well as the face of police violence.
"He ended up embodying this severity with this strict maintenance of order and the excesses that we know. However, I believe that we should not overinterpret the characteristics of his personality and remember that the prefect of police is a servant of the State which is always the reflection of an era. This exposed post concentrates popular vindictiveness when things happen in Paris", analyzes Olivier Renaudie.
>> To see: "A country that stands wise", making police violence visible
This unpopularity inherent in this post is however reinforced by unusual outings for a senior civil servant subject to the duty of reserve.
In November 2019, Place d'Italie, the day after a turbulent demonstration, he came across a yellow vest and let go with disdain: "We are not on the same side, madam."
He will later concede "a clumsiness" but this sentence will stick to his skin.
In April 2020, in full confinement, Didier Lallement once again provoked controversy by assuring that "those who are hospitalized today, those found in intensive care units, are those who, at the start of confinement, do not did not respect it (…), there is a very simple correlation”.
The backpedaling that will follow will not change anything: this statement condemned by many doctors reinforces his image of a brutal and empathetic senior official.
The challenge of the 2024 Olympics
Despite these adventures giving rise each time to numerous calls for resignation, Emmanuel Macron gives him all his confidence.
The one who is sometimes described as "the best informed man in France" and who only has to report to the Minister of the Interior, is praised for his loyalty and his determination.
The prefect of police is "a kind of screen" for power, recalls Olivier Renaudie.
"The essence of the Paris police headquarters since its creation under Napoleon is to protect the public authorities".
Aged 65, Didier Lallement, who is reaching the age limit for holding a prefectural office, should return to his original administration, the Court of Auditors, before retiring.
To succeed him, several names are mentioned: Georges-François Leclerc, prefect of Hauts-de-France, Frédérique Camilleri, police prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône or Pascal Mailhos, the prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and former Director of General Information.
However, it is former Secretary of State Laurent Nuñez, currently intelligence coordinator, who seems to be the favorite at the moment.
In the crosshairs for the new prefect: the 2024 Olympic Games described as a "sacred piece of bravery in the maintenance of public order", by Olivier Renaudie.
"That's probably why the change is happening now because it takes at least two years of experience to prepare the policing plan for such an extraordinary event."
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